Page 34 of The Lost Kings

“It’s not what you think.” Presley bent down to grab her shorts and brought them up to her chest to cover herself.

My twin kept his glare pinned on me as if I were the person who had betrayed him. Technically I did, but only because the way we’d started things with her, it didn’t feel like she belonged to just me or to just him. She felt like she was ours, and whoever found her first would have her.

“What is it you think I assume is going on?” my brother finally asked.

Presley drew closer to him. “That we’re leaving you out or sneaking around without you.”

Gio laughed, but I knew it was the kind of laugh that led to him pushing people into pools and him sinking knives into people’s sides. “Was I here between you two and I not know it? ”

Presley was standing right in front of him now, trembling because she was no longer under the hot water. “No, I just mean that King was here, and if you were here, then I would have gone in with you. I started with both of you, and?—”

“How nice of you to think of us as so interchangeable, Elvis. Really fucking nice.”

He turned away and swiftly exited the locker room, letting the door swing open and risking us being discovered.

Presley had angry tears gathering along her lashes as she bent to grab her bra before dashing off toward the other locker room.

I was left standing there, feeling like the shittiest brother ever.

Our abuela wore a vibrant pink apron over her clothes. Her dark hair was pinned back and the veggies in front of her were being diced faster than anything I’d ever seen on television.

“Corta, Gio. Si sabes usar una espada, úsala,” she yelled at my brother in Spanish.

Chop, Gio. You know how to use a blade, use it.

Gio reached for another tomato and began dicing as he was told, but his chin remained pinned to his chest, his eyes narrowed.

I stood next to him, dicing onions and piling them into a bowl.

Our mom was across the kitchen next to Alex where they were making tortillas, and Dad was somewhere in the building giving orders and helping move canned goods.

I needed to talk to Gio, but it had to be where no one could hear us.

“Kingston.” My grandma clicked her tongue and I moved faster, knowing she was about to get after me.

Alex did something that drew her attention, which pulled her away from our station.

“I wasn’t trying to steal her,” I muttered quietly.

My brother kept chopping and ignored me .

“You know you would have taken the opportunity if you were me.”

That made his hand pause mid-swipe. I knew he would have, which was why I didn’t feel guilty about what I had done. Presley belonged to us both, but that didn’t mean we both had to be present every time we wanted her.

Gio finally replied with a snide tone, “I thought we weren’t going to talk about what happened in the car.”

I tried not to smile but failed. “We didn’t do any talking.”

He paused and swung his head around, eyes narrowed again. “Fuck you, King.”

“Stop it, look at me, Bro.” I set my blade down, but he didn’t.

“I would have waited to talk to you; I wouldn’t have just taken her into the locker room and fucked her,” Gio said angrily.

I moved with him down the station as he tried to get away from me. Lowering my voice, I said, “I didn’t fuck her. There was no fucking whatsoever.”

Gio stared at me for so long I thought perhaps he’d relent, but instead, he pushed me, forcing me back into the metal table.

The bowls we’d filled with chopped veggies spilled all over the floor.

Our grandmother cursed in Spanish and our mom wiped her hands on her apron before quickly moving around the counter.

I took advantage of the delay and punched him in the jaw.

He drove into my chest, pushing me into another table, which made a mess of even more of the food. Mom was screaming at us, so was our grandma, but it wasn’t until our dad came in that we finally broke apart.

“The fuck is going on here?” he roared.

He yanked me by the shirt and shoved at Gio’s chest until we were separated.

I was breathing hard, and Gio still looked murderous.

Dad asked again, his voice echoing around the room. “What’s going on? ”

“Nothing!” I screamed while wiping at all of the onions and tomatoes that had fallen on my shirt.

“Gio?” Dad asked, but he pushed out of our dad’s hold and stormed out of the kitchen.

“He gets five minutes, then he’s back here cleaning this mess up. You both will be here until midnight replacing all the food your mother and grandma have been preparing. Do you understand me?” Dad’s grip on my shirt tightened until I agreed.

Once he finally let go, I stared after the door my brother had exited through.

I had finally finished cleaning everything and replacing all the food by one in the morning. My arms were tired, my fingers sore, and as I got into my dark room, I dropped into bed.

“You actually cleaned everything on your own?” Gio’s voice echoed from across the room. If I had any energy at all I’d throw a pillow at him.

“Clean? I had to clean and replace all the shit we spilled. You were supposed to come back and help me.”

His chuckle grated against my nerves.

“Presley snuck through our window tonight. She was crying and begged me to listen to her.”

That had me alert, but I didn’t show it. I remained face down on my bed, pillows practically suffocating me.

Gio continued, “I heard her out. She said all this stuff was confusing to her, but she figured we were all three just messing around. She didn’t think it meant anything to which I had to agree with her and stop being such a little bitch about things.”

“But it does mean something,” I replied, muffled and strangely annoyed.

Why would she chalk it up to us messing around? Probably because I had alluded to that by not talking about what we were doing outside of the car.

My twin let out a heavy sigh, which made me open one eye and take him in. He was in a white tank top and black boxers. His face revealed too much, and that had always been his downfall.

“I think we need to maintain that this is meaningless, Bro…so we don’t scare her off.”

That made me move my head to the side so I could see him better. “So now there’s a we?”

My brother smirked. “Since you did all the work tonight, I’ve decided to forgive you.”

I did throw a pillow at him then. Then another.

His laugh was a ray of sunshine that always seemed to move away my clouds.

“So, where does that leave us?” I finally asked once my brother turned his light off.

Gio waited a few seconds before replying, “I think we just go with the flow. If you do what you did today, I promise not to lose my shit. Just know that I’ll be stealing moments with her too.”

“We’re usually always together, the three of us.

What then?” I risked asking, afraid of what it would mean if my brother shut this down.

I didn’t mind having him with me in that car.

He’d been my teammate in absolutely everything I’d ever done.

Sharing wasn’t an uncommon feeling, and while I didn’t really pay attention to what he did with her, it didn’t bother me that he was doing something with her at the same time.

Gio let out a small sigh before lobbing another pillow back at my face.

“Then we do what we did in the car…figure it out, I guess. I’m not ever fucking touching you though and if you touch me, I’ll stab you.”

He threw another pillow and I caught it. “I’m not holding back with her either, Gio. If the feeling is right, then I’m?—”

“Not touching me. Do what you want with Presley, and we’ll figure it out. But that part needs to be clear. ”

It was my turn to laugh because this seemed to really be messing with him.

We’d never been shy with one another. I openly masturbated under my covers from the time I was eleven, and he’d asked me to check something on one of his ball sacks before.

He was my brother. My twin. We kept nothing from one another, but I agreed with him on this.

I had no desire to ever intersect while enjoying Presley.

“As long as she never chooses anyone but us, I don’t really care what happens, but yeah. No worries, Bro. We won’t touch.”

“Good,” Gio mused then laughed again, before throwing yet another pillow at my face.