The Things You Make Me Feel Ch. 09

"You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Then why do I need to put the headphones on?"

"Oh, that? It's because I want you check them out for me. You see, I think maybe these are starting break down, and if that's the case, we should really buy new ones. But I'll feel much more confident if you try them on first, give me your honest review."

"What's a review?"

"It's when you... just tell me if they're okay or not, but only after the movie is over, not a second before."

Oliver put the headphones on her and got—

"Don't go, papi," Michela pleaded, clutching his arm.

He gave her a smile and then a loving kiss to her forehead. "Don't take them off, no matter what, until I come back."

He pressed play and smiled as he closed the door behind him. He then gave a sigh as he started down the stairs. Jack was sitting on the couch with his hands clasped together in his lap. He seemed so angry yet bottled-up at the same time, Oliver thought while treading in trepidation into the living room.

"Do you want a beer? Or perhaps something a bit... stronger?"

Jack responded with an angry scowl, his body as stiff as his face.

Oliver cut his eyes at his phone. It was on vibrate, and he could see from afar Ellie's pretty face on the display.

"Do you want to pick that up?"

Oliver gulped and disregarded the incessant vibrations his girlfriend was making. "No."

"Who's calling?"

He shook his head, thinking he should have probably taken his daughter's advice. "Jack, I—"

"Who's calling, Oliver?"

He gave a sigh. "You know who's calling."

Jack rose to his feet to take a better look at Oliver's phone. He stared at it for more than two minutes, watching his twin calling over and over, before he sized his little brother up. "So a funny story: you're fucking Ellie."

"Jack, it's not like that."

"No? So you're not fucking our sister?"

"I... I lov—"

"Don't say it. Don't even fucking think it."

Oliver swallowed and walked across the room.

His brother wasn't a violent person, he knew, but he looked nothing like Gandhi at the moment.

"How long?"

Oliver gave another sigh, guilt surging up within him. "December."

"Fuck... so three months?"

"Just over."

"Wow."

"Jack, if you let me exp—"

"Zip it. You only answer to what I ask."

Oliver gave a meek nod as he paced around the sofa while Jack was striving to reduce the distance between them.

"Where're you going? Don't tell me you're afraid."

"I don't know," Oliver replied, pacing back as Jack stepped forward. "Should I be afraid?"

"To be honest, Oliver, that's a question I'm finding hard to answer now."

"Jack, I understand you're pissed off, but—"

"Pissed off? No, we're way past that."

"My little girl is upstairs, and she's very afraid."

"Jesus fucking Christ, Oliver, and whose fault is that?!"

Oliver almost tripped while blindly pacing backward. "Let me get someone to watch over her, and I'll go with you wherever you want. I don't want her to see it."

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Jack closed the distance between them as if his brother had said nothing. "Our own sister?"

"I love her."

"I told you not to say that."

"Then what do you want me to say?! Why did you even come here if you weren't gonna let me explain?"

"Like you could ever explain that. There is no explanation any way you slice it."

Oliver flopped backwards but scrambled up quickly, though not quickly enough. He was out of lane, and his brother was too close now. "Jack, please. For Michela."

"Wasn't it enough that you went MIA for five years and showed up with Michela? Huh? You had mess with Ellie, too? You disgusting perv."

Oliver swallowed while looking for escaping routes to his left and right, but there were none; his brother had him cornered. "We're adults: you, me, and Ellie. Forgive me if this offends you in some way, but frankly, Jack: I don't give a damn. I'm not gonna try to make you see how amazing this is for us 'cause you obviously have no interest in hearing that. So I'll just say this and be done with it: This is our lives, and we'll do what the fuck we want with them. You're mad? Enraged? Have a glass of cold water and walk it off. When you're ready, I'll be more than happy to sit you down and explain you everything. But don't think for a second I'm gonna let you dictate—"

BAMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Jack drew first blood when he threw a punch right into Oliver's left eye. Oliver crumbled against the wall from the painful blow and, essentially, unwillingly consented to be used as a punching bag for his brother while collapsing to the floor. The blow had dazed him, and for long seconds he was only able to guard his face as Jack mounted him and drove reckless punches to his abdomen and ribs.

The urgency to protect his ribs forced him to retaliate, and in a surprise counterattack, he pulled his brother's face into his fist and split his left eyebrow. Jack didn't feel or care that he was bleeding and kept lashing at his kid brother mercilessly, but Oliver was done taking the beating. He wriggled his body to enfeeble Jack's dominant position and found another opening when Jack was a bit off balance. He snuck a jab into Jack's ribs, and when his brother arched to his side, he pushed him off and grappled with him on the ground.

They tangled, rolling back and forth, punching like the poorest of the MMA fighters, but Oliver was the more fit of the two, and he managed to wind his limbs around Jack's from behind while lying on his back. He contained him this way until his brother was too weary to try escape, and so they lay short-winded on the floor, Jack unable to strike and Oliver wouldn't.

"Let me go," Jack panted and tried squirming out of his brother's grip. "LET ME GO!"

"Are you gonna calm down?" Oliver asked between labored breaths, the pain in his eye explosive and unfaltering.

"If you don't let me go, Oliver, so help me god..."

Oliver considered it. He wasn't keen on the idea of relinquishing control, but he was desperate to pacify his brother. "I'm letting go, but—"

POWWWWWWW!!!!!!

Just as Oliver loosened his grasp over his brother, Jack drilled a stupefying elbow straight into his jaw. It was over for Oliver now. His brother was back on top of him, driving one angry fist after another into his stomach and ribs, like a gorilla on a rampage. All he could do was to try shelter his face. That elbow had almost knocked him out.

"Oh my god, GET OFF OF HIMMMMMM!!!!" Ellie screamed in horror two seconds after the four stormed in. "DAVE!!!"

Dave hooked his arms in Jack's from behind and had to use all of his strength to scrape him off Oliver. He lugged Jack backward and rolled him onto his belly. Rasp in his breath, Jack could do nothing now but to lie face-down with his arms constrained behind his back.

"Oliver, oh my god," Ellie keened in anguish as she crumbled beside him, and for a just reason. "My poor baby..."

Her boyfriend got some serious beating, his face and ribs black and blue. He was bleeding from both corners of his mouth as well as from his left brow, and only by way of miracle had managed to cling onto consciousness.

Ellie sobbed as she stroked his hair. "What did he do to you..."

"Let me go, Dave," Jack panted.

"Are you gonna be cool?"

"Let go."

Dave freed him but stood between him and Oliver, just in case.

But it wasn't Jack he should have been worried about.

"YOU MONSTER!" Ellie lunged forward and flung her hands at her twin, smacking him wherever she could reach. Dave tried to hold her back when placing himself between them, but Ellie was not operating on behalf of sanity and managed to dig her long nails in her twin's cheek. Jack screeched with pain when she raked and tore at his skin. By the time he escaped her nails, it looked as if he'd just run into a Bengal tiger.

"You bitch!" He passed his fingers along the bloody grooves Ellie's nails had furrowed.

With one wrathful talon, Ellie had inflicted on her twin more damage her boyfriend had managed throughout their struggle, and she wasn't done, not by a long shot. Seeing Oliver this way had broken something inside her, and Jack was no longer her brother now. She writhed in Dave's arms like a lunatic and landed a smack across Jack's face that kept resonating long after Dave pushed her back.

"Fuck!" Jack cried and tried pushing Dave aside.

Jack might not have been a violent person, but something had broken inside him, too. He was more lenient toward Oliver, more than any of their family members, and this is how he repaid him? By shaming their sister? And Ellie... it was a betrayal of highest order. Twins have complicated relationships more times than not, and although he never had any romantic feelings for her, he felt betrayed in a way he could not explain, even to himself.

Dave had his hands full as he tried to deny the showdown. Jack was clearly not being himself, and Dave had never seen Ellie this loose before. She was more of a handful than Jack. As hard as he tried, they were too keen on confrontation, and a strong push from his sister made him drop to floor. With Dave out of the way, a fearless Ellie lashed out, hitting her twin in such brutality that made everyone in the room goggle in bewilderment, including Jack. She could kill him now and not even shed a tear at his funeral.

It was becoming increasingly difficult for Jack not to counter while Ellie was hitting him with everything she had, and after she smacked him across his face for the second time, he hurled her down at the floor with perhaps too much intent. Only when watching his twin sobbing as she pulled herself back up, he remembered how fragile she really was. She was no match for him, however upset.

"Oh, no you didn't," Dave hissed menacingly after Ellie was tossed to the ground and threw a righty into Jack's face.

It was one thing hitting Oliver, but no one was going to lay a finger on his sister.

Finally, Kara and Gena intervened and saved Jack from a painful beating as Dave was ready to shred him to pieces. Ellie was wailing like she had never. She got hurt when Jack thrust her into the hardwood flooring, but her pain was internal more than anything. While she was sobbing and screaming at her twin, Dave helped Oliver to the sofa and gathered her in his arms. After a moment in which everyone had the chance to cool off a bit, Ellie scurried to the kitchen and fetched Oliver a steak from the freezer to soothe his wounds. He was bleeding quite profusely from his brow, and Ellie suspected he would need stitches.

"Ellie!" Jack yipped. "Ellie!"

The blonde gave a hurting Oliver a kiss on the cheek and rose to round two, a verbal one for a change.

"What the fuck is wrong with you two?! Have you completely—"

"Fuck you, Jack! Do you think we owe you an explanation?! Who the fuck died and made you God?!"

"Are you insane?! You are fucking your own brother!"

"You know, we wanted to tell you when the time was right and to explain everything, but after today, Jack, I couldn't care less what you think about it let alone how you're gonna deal with it. I couldn't care less about you, period!"

Jack shook his head at her, an astounded frown on his face. "You should be institutionalized for this, you twisted sicko. Oliver has already proven he is capable of anything, but you? God help you, Ellie."

"You know what? I don't wanna fucking hear it! I don't wanna fucking hear you! You know why, Jack? Because you're dead to me!"

"I'm dead to you? You're dead to me! You and him!"

"Good riddance! Believe me when I say this, we will not be mourning."

"God, you're the worst twin ever!"

"I'm the worst twin?!"

"You've never given a damn about me, let's be honest here, Ellie."

"You know what? You're right. I've never given a damn about you because I've never particularly loved you. You wanna know the truth, Jack? Of all my brothers, I've loved you the least. There; I said it."

Ellie might have been furious with her twin and was looking to hurt him, but deep down, they both knew she wasn't lying. He was a distant third, always had been.

"Well, I'm glad it's finally out. Now we don't need to pretend anymore around each other."

"Whatever! Gena take your wife-beater piece of shit out of here. I'm sure he's gonna make a great father. Just be sure not to piss him off, or you and your baby will be next."

Jack marched angrily to her. "What the fuck did you just say?"

Ellie lurched forward to meet him halfway. "What are you gonna do?!"

"Keep running your mouth like that, and you'll—"

"Don't you fucking dare to touch her again!" Kara squeezed herself between them and shoved Jack back. "She's pregnant!"

A collective gape of eyes followed Kara's words.

Gena and Jack were understandably dumbfounded, but so was Dave. He knew nothing about it.

"You're pregnant?" Gena asked, perplexed.

"Fifteen weeks!" Kara shouted, guarding Ellie. "She's gonna give birth even before you do!"

Ellie was uncomfortable with Kara spilling the beans and the subsequent wide-eyed stairs, but truthfully, she didn't care so much that they knew. She did care, however, that Oliver knew. This was not how she wanted him to learn about it, and when she slowly turned around to gauge his reaction, she knew Kara had made an awful mistake by blurting her secret out like that.

"Oliver, I..."

She sighed for the lack of any excuse as to why he was only now finding out. With eyes downcast, she waited for his reaction, any reaction.

"Dave," Oliver said quietly, his head spinning, "come give me a hand." He hooked his arm over his brother's shoulders, and Dave helped him to his feet, the room utterly still. "I need you to take to me to the clinic or something."

Dave bobbed his head, and they walked slowly, Oliver wincing with every step.

Fraught with dread, Ellie finally raised her head to look into his eyes. "Baby, I wanted—"

"Don't touch me, Ellie."

She burst into tears as he teetered past her. This was more painful than anything Jack had either said or done to her.

"Kara, Michela is upstairs watching a movie."

"Michela is here?!" Gena exclaimed, scowling at her fiancé.

"Watch over her until we get back? I don't want her to see me like this."

"Yeah; sure, Oliver," Kara said, appalled just as Gena that this had taken place while she was in the house. "I'll look after her. Don't worry."

Oliver darted a look at his sobbing girlfriend, and he and Dave left.

***

All hell broke loose while Oliver and Dave were away. Alice and Dan cut their day at work short after Jack informed them of his siblings' incestuous relationship and its forbidden fruits, and the house was in great turmoil. Alice pinned everything on Oliver while her husband pinned it on Ellie, and the twins pried at old wounds as their relationship continued to disintegrate. Little Michela was at the playground with Kara and Gena, so she was spared this horror show, and none was able to come to an agreement about anything.

"Mom, I am not terminating shit!"

"No, you're going to end this abomination, and you're going to do it first thing in the morning. I'll see to that."

"Yeah, dream on."

"Ellie, you're ruining your brother's life!" Dan chimed in. "If not for yourself, then do it for him!"

"Oh, that's just great, Dad. You've always loved him more than me!"

"This is not about love! It's about doing the right thing for crying out loud!"

"And what is the right thing here exactly? Huh, Dad? For me to be miserable?!"

"I assure you we will take good care of both of you after it's done. We'll see to it that you get therapy, and we'll help you both back on track."

"Dad! We don't need therapy or your help. We need each other! Why can't you get that in your thick head already?!"

"Ellie, you and Oliver—"

"Shut the fuck up, Jack! I don't even know why you're still here. I'm not talking to dead people."

"Jack, stay out of it," Alice said. "Baby, listen to me now: You're—"

"No! I am done listening! This is going down, and although I understand that it's difficult to deal with, you really haven't got much choice. We're all big kids here—yes, Dad, even Oliver—and this is a reality that—"

"Ellie, Oliver is just a kid, no matter what you say. He's been through a lot, and instead of acting like the adult here, you went and dragged him into—"

"What do you mean she dragged him into this?!" Alice exploded. "It's all his fault! He set out to ruin this family long ago. My baby is just another one of his victims."

While Alice and Dan kept bickering on who was the real culprit, Jack and Ellie were burying one another over and over when declaring each other dead. They issued fake burial certificates and everything.

"Dad! Dad!" Ellie cut him off as he was explaining to his wife that Ellie was the oldest, and, therefore, should have acted like one. "What are you talking about?! Have you taken a good look at your kids lately?! I may be the oldest and Oliver the youngest, but he is more mature and grownup than all of us combined! He might as well be the oldest!"

Dan shook his head as he poured himself another glass of whiskey. He didn't want to admit it, but Ellie had a point.

"Listen, this is a tough pill to swallow, no doubt, and right now you're in shock, so you can't even begin to fathom anything I say. But I want you to hear me when I say this loud and clear: As incomprehensible and twisted as it may seem to you, I'm in love with your son, and he's in love with me back. If you"—tears coursed down from her blue eyes—"even dare to interfere with us or manipulate Oliver in any way... you will never see me again. EVER!!"

Alice shook her head, now sobbing along with her daughter. "How do you expect us t-to be okay with this? Really, baby, that's a lot to ask from us. I understand that you've been having... unhealthy feelings for some time now, but"—tears furrowed her pale cheeks—"that's my son we're talking about here... MY BABY BOY!"

Ellie burst into tears, can't stand to see her mother in such agony. "But, Mom... your baby boy also happens to be the love of my life. If I let him go... I'm as good as dead."

Alice gave a sob, and she and Ellie wept around the kitchen island. Alice would give her life for her daughter, but what Ellie was asking now might have been greater than death.

The three then heard the front door open, and Dave and Oliver joined them in the kitchen.

"Oliver?!" his mother exclaimed as she rose to inspect his face.

He was battered in a way that could leave no one indifferent, with a suture on his left brow and a shiner on the same eye, and as he tottered in, it was clear that the rest of him wasn't doing any better.

Dan shot Jack a look. "You might want to get away from me now."

Jack swallowed and left to the living room.

Ellie rose to her feet and waited for her boyfriend to acknowledge her, but the moment did not arrive.

"Michela?" Oliver asked as he slowly lowered himself on the kitchen stool.

"They're on the way back," Alice said, wiping off her tears.

She searched for a spot on his cheek where the tissue wasn't discolored and planted a motherly kiss there before she poured him whiskey at his request. Ellie kept hunting down his gaze, but he was actively avoiding her eyes.

"Oliv—"

"Ellie, go home."

"But I really need to talk—"

"Go home," he said without even looking at her and gulped the whiskey down. "We'll talk later."

With a loud sob, she stormed out of the kitchen and out of the house.

***

"You should always hold to the handrail when going down the stairs, Papi. I do it all the time."

"You're right, princess. Daddy can be such a klutz at times, but I will definitely pay more attention from now on."