Sample Chapter
United Brotherhood Memoir
The drive to Cocoa took a lot longer than I expected since I had to direct Miranda basically step by step. We decided to take her car because I just really didn’t have the money to fill mine up and it seemed easier to have her drive.
When we got to Rockledge, Miranda was a bit less impressed by the place than I was. She’s from some really nice place in Maryland so she was probably used to a lot more upscale places. She’s also worked for Infinity for a few years and probably had already seen her share of our clients’ swanky houses. Don’t get me wrong she still thought it was gorgeous but I do think I set the bar a little too high with my explanation. Honestly though, I think I was allowing my infatuation with the twins to enhance basically everything they were associated with.
Once we were inside the community, it was pretty easy to find their place. It helped that Lake was walking around near what I presumed was his Range Rover parked
Winter
7 RILEY
in the driveway. “Oooh which one is that?” Miranda asked as I directed her into the circle drive.
I had to peek my head a little out the window to get a better look at his hair. “That’s Lake. He’s the one that’s kinda... ehh.” I couldn’t find the word I was looking for but I think my response made him out to be worse than I intended.
She giggled a little bit and tilted her sunglasses down so she could get a better look. “You have a weird definition of ‘ehh’.” She parked the car and I gave her an annoyed look as I opened the car door.
Before I got out I leaned over really close to Miranda to make sure no one could hear the two of us. “It’s just... it’s more of a personality thing. Just wait, you’ll get it.” She gave me a weird look and then we both got out of the car and walked slowly toward the house.
Lake was just closing the back of his Rover when he saw us walking up. He looked at me for a second. I didn’t know why he had developed a habit of avoiding eye contact with me. He gave us a quick and kind of awkward wave but didn’t say anything as we got closer. The look he gave Miranda seemed to suggest that he didn’t know she would be with me. The way he was dressed almost made me wonder if he was even coming with us. He had on long khaki pants and light brown sperrys. The strangest part was that he was wearing a thin blue sweater with a pink collared shirt peeking out at his neck and wrists. It was quite hot out the day with a fairly dry wind so I was wondering what he could possibly be thinking. If it had been Forest I might
have questioned it but I wouldn’t have dreamed of getting too intrusive with Lake at the time.
Finally we got close enough to him that I had no choice but to break the silence. “Miranda this is Lake.” I said pretty uncomfortably. I wasn’t sure if maybe I should have addressed him first.
Lake extended his hand but the European in Miranda led her to go in for a hug. I could see over her shoulder that Lake’s facial expression was one of near distress. He’s so fucking awkward always. “It’s nice to meet you, Riley says you’re one of his favorite clients.” I don’t think I’d ever explicitly said that and even if I had I would’ve preferred neither of them knew about it.
Lake looked over at me and gave me a shy smile. “He’s our favorite photographer.”
My mind was utterly blown by that comment. I would never have expected to hear anything like that from Lake in particular. Especially not the way he said it. All of a sudden he seemed like a completely different person. You know, like a normal person.
“Well thanks.” I responded meekly. Well, at least I wanted to seem meek. “She’s right. I mean, I know I’ve only shot for you two a couple of times but it’s been fun each time.” Technically this was sort of a lie considering I had only really shot them once.
He laughed a little bit and took a step back from me. Just as he did, he looked back and I saw a small boy coming bolting out of the house. I assumed it was their little brother and it frustrated me that I couldn’t remember his name. It’s not like they would’ve expected me to
remember it at that point but I still would have liked to be able to recall it. He was dressed much more appropriately in casual swimwear. He literally looked like a smaller version of Forest. His hair was a lot lighter than Lake’s and a lot longer than either of them. It was kind of wavy and hung just a little below his ears but you could tell that with it cut, he would be a spitting image of his brothers. He had the signature Dream smile I was becoming accustomed to and I could tell he had tons of energy as he ran out and jumped onto Lake’s back for a second and then leapt off. I was surprised he didn’t knock Lake off his feet. I also understood at that moment why it was so hard for them to get him to stick around for a shoot.
He calmed down and then stood and peeked around Lake and stared at me. He started to look back and forth from me to Lake until Lake finally stopped waiting for him to do whatever it was that he was clearly about to do. Finally, he looked at me triumphantly and mouthed. “Are you Lake’s boyfriend?” I couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit as I shook my head.
Lake looked at me and then back to Winter and then ruffled his hair a little. “What are you doing kid.”
“Noooothing.” He looked at me really weird and smiled before turning around and leaning up on the back of the Rover. “I’m Winter.” He directed this toward me and then looked at Miranda and waved quickly back and forth.
“You’re super cute.” Miranda exclaimed as she stepped forward to engage him further. Lake took this opportunity to approach me.
“Did he ask you something stupid?” He was smiling but I could tell he seemed kind of antsy about his question. “Did he ask you what I think he asked you?” I wasn’t quite sure how he knew but I could tell we were on the same wavelength.
“Heh yeah, I think so.” If I were white I would’ve been blushing. It was okay though. He was red enough for the both of us.
“That’s annoying.” He said as he looked back toward Winter. “He’s annoying.” Just as he said this I heard the door slam behind him. He looked back and saw Forest and then immediately walked away from me and toward the passenger side of the Rover. He walked up to Winter and Miranda on the way as Forest came out and approached.
He looked more than ready for a day at the beach. He wasn’t wearing a shirt and had a towel slung over his shoulder. He was wearing blue swim shorts and some brown flip flops. He had a big smile on his face and his auburn hair was waving in the wind. It was a sight to see.
He ran up toward us and as he passed Miranda he almost lost his footing from staring at her for just a little too long. I found that hilarious. He continued passed them and came up and put his arm around me. Again with his boundary issues. “What is up my boy?” He was thoroughly excited. I was flattered.
“I’m alright man. You excited for the launch. It should be cool from the beach.” He looked down at me with this kind of stale look and then shrugged his shoulders.
“What if there were grander things in life than a space launch?” He said as we walked over to the rest of the
crowd. “What if mankind could accomplish more groundbreaking feats than sending hunks of metal into the sky?” He said this a lot louder so his friends were aware. Miranda looked up intrigued while Lake shook his head and turned to get into the car. Winter seemed quite amused as he stared at Forest in awe. Forest pushed Winter on the back and led him toward the backseat.
“Settle down bud.” He said to Winter as the kid climbed into the car. Forest turned around and told us to hop in before he got in himself. I looked up at Miranda who gave me a bright smile and mouthed to me. “So fucking hot.” I just laughed and climbed into the car behind her.
The car was pretty spacious and I could already tell it was going to be a fun ride since Winter was kind of bouncing around a bit and asking Miranda a bunch of questions. He seemed about as into her as Forest seemed to be. Lake spent most of the ride staring out the window and ignoring most of our conversation. Forest chatted his ass off though as he drove down the highway. After about ten minutes, when the conversation seemed to calm down, Lake reached over and grabbed Forest’s phone. He scrolled through the music and suddenly “Dreams” by Passion Pit started to come through the speakers. I guess he was trying to be cute and it worked. Not only do I really love that song but it was just deathly ironic.
We listened to that album for the remaining time it took to get down to the shoreline. To my surprise we didn’t go down to the pier. Instead Forest kept driving to this sort of secluded area that I’d never been to before. It was tucked away behind a mess of palm trees and a couple hills. As
soon as we parked, Winter jumped out of the car and skipped over to the back and opened up the hatchback. I looked back and he was attempting to pull out the cooler which was cute because it was way too big for him to get out on his own and I’m sure he knew that.
Miranda got out on the same side as Winter and I waited for a second as I leaned over and tried to fix my hair in the rear view. After a couple of minutes of messing with it Lake looked back at me. Everyone else was already out of the car but for some reason Lake had been sitting there on his phone for a little while. I couldn’t tell if he was waiting for me or if we just happened to stay there for the same amount of time. “Oh hey. I didn’t realize you were still back there.” The way he said that sounded kind of like false surprise. It sort of made me think that he knew damn well that I was back there but why he would pretend otherwise didn’t really make any sense to me.
“Oh yeah I was just fixing my hair. Sorry.” I laughed a little and then opened the car door and stepped out. He got out immediately after me which only furthered my suspicion.
He looked up at me shyly and then looked down toward his feet and muttered. “Your hair looks great. It always does.” He looked back up at me for a second and then turned and walked over to help Forest carry the cooler over toward the beach. We were parked in a little grassy area just a couple yards away from the sand. As I got out of the car, I noticed there were about four other cars parked on the other side of Forest’s. It dawned on me then that we must be meeting up with some of their friends.
Miranda was walking away as Winter kept her company, still rattling away with questions about her and me and where we worked and anything else he could think of. I kept my distance walking behind them just because I didn’t want to be caught in the line of fire and made to answer a ton of questions. I could tell Miranda didn’t mind. She loves kids and she looked like she was having a blast entertaining Winter.
When we got to the beach I could hear the faint sound of the waves echoing over the sound of what I immediately recognized as Bassnectar in the background. There were a bunch of bare chested guys hanging around on the sand. Four of them, including Forest were setting up a volleyball net. There was a little flock of pretty girls hanging around the tides and another boy about Winter’s age sitting in the sand sort of creepily watching them.
Winter ran up to the little kid and kicked some sand on him. It was actually really funny because the kid freaked out a little and started frantically brushing the sand out of his hair. The flock of girls doubled back toward us when they saw Miranda walking up to the volleyball net with Lake.
“Lakey!” One of the girls called out and then ran up and embraced him tighter than I think he was prepared for. Just like with Miranda, Lake sort of just stood there and accepted the hug.
Behind her were four more girls that were all quite lovely but one of them shined like the North Star. She was just a few strides ahead of the rest of them and she looked basically angelic. The way that she walked looked like she
was gliding across the sand. She was wearing a salmoncolored knee length dress with a triangle shaped hole in the center. Her skin was a milk chocolate color and it glowed like a freshly polished car. Her hair was long, black and a little bit wavy. You could tell she was the Alpha of the group following her. I barely even paid attention to the rest of their features because I was so awestruck by the first one. Two of the other girls were white and with pretty blond hair. One had pretty long hair and the other had a short little bob. The last girl was asian and quite beautiful as well but still in no way comparable to the leader of the pack.
“Hey you.” The black girl called out to me from across the beach. I was surprised that she would address me first instead of heading over to talk to Lake like the first girl. She stuck her finger out and motioned me toward her. “I think I know who you are.” She said as me and Miranda picked up our stride to meet her halfway.
I was confused by this for a moment. I didn’t recognize her from anywhere so I figured one of the twins must have told her about me. I got my answer pretty soon after as Forest ran up to her, wrapped his arms around her and turned her face to meet his. He snuggled his nose to hers and gave her a little eskimo kiss and then a little peck on the lips. “I see you’ve met my new best friend.” He looked over at me with this sort of devious smile. “Come here come here come here. Both of you come here.” I couldn’t handle these two. Their joint radiance was almost more overwhelming than he was next to his brother.
Forest took my hand and awkwardly placed it into his girlfriend’s. “This is my girl Valerie.”
Valerie let go of my hand quickly and smacked Forest lightly on his cheek. “Girlfriend.” She put a finger to his face and then turned back around toward me. “He’s in training.” She laughed but I could tell she at least sort of meant what she said. “So you’re the boy huh?” I didn’t know what she meant by that at all.
“Umm.. the boy? I guess I’m the boy.” I looked over at Forest for help and he just laughed and shook his head. Then I looked back to Valerie and she looked over and nodded toward something behind me. I turned and realized that she was gesturing toward Lake. I still didn’t catch her intimation.
“Nice to meet you Riley.” She knew my name already. That caught me off guard. She looked at Forest and giggled and then turned to Miranda. “Come with me, I don’t know anything about you.” She said in a cute voice that Miranda responded quite well too. They walked off toward the finished volleyball court and up to some guy djing on his laptop surrounded by a couple of speakers. The girls with Valerie didn’t introduce themselves but instead walked off toward Lake.
Forest then looked at me and gave me the same suggestive smirk he’d been giving since I met him. “So let’s chat.” Immediately, I felt really uncomfortable. It was clear he had something specific to talk about. I followed him away from the crowd and out toward the shore. The sand felt great on my feet as it hardened and the water started to creep up on us. I looked back up at Forest who was gazing
airly around out toward the ocean and up to the sky. “My brothers are the most important thing in the world to me.” All of a sudden, he was completely serious and looked over at me with a confused look on his face. “Take that off.” He flicked my shirt a little bit which was weird but for some reason I listened to his command pretty quickly and took off my shirt. I didn’t feel like holding it so I tossed it behind us toward the dry sand.
“Yeah... I figured as much.” I had obviously never thought about that before but I didn’t know how to respond to that at all.
He looked at me blankly and then looked back out toward the ocean. “I really need you Riley. You know that?” I absolutely did not know that. I was so confused about what he was saying. I didn’t respond and he continued. “My brother’s gay you know?” I actually hadn’t figured that out. He didn’t seem very gay but I guess I wouldn’t have been able to tell since he’s so much less vocal than most people. I shook my head and then Forest grabbed both my arms and slowly turned me around so that I was facing the crowd of people with Lake standing off to the side. “Yeah he is. A beautiful lonely homo.”
I was uncomfortable at this point as I remembered what Winter had whispered to me earlier. I guess I should have realized from what Winter asked that there was a chance Lake was gay but the thought didn’t really cross my mind. “He’s lonely huh?” I asked with a little more intrigue than I think I should have because I think it gave the impression that I was interested in Lake. I was interested but I barely knew either of them. It seemed a little weird to all of
sudden be having this conversation. Not to mention the fact that they were essentially my bosses.
“Look. My brother wants you.” He said really bluntly. He then paused and stepped forward to stand next to me. He put his hand on my shoulder. “Let’s get this out of the way. You are gay right?”
It was an awkward question considering I hadn’t yet told Miranda that but it was obvious that he already knew. “Umm... yeah I am.” The tide was starting to come in further and it sounded and felt beautiful washing up on our feet. I looked out at the crowd dancing and playing around. Winter was now building something in the sand with his friend and a few of them were grilling something near the guy with the laptop.
Suddenly, I heard Valerie scream out toward us. “Hey guys it’s starting. Three minutes left.” Forest waved at her and told her we’d be back over in a minute. I almost forgot that we were out there to see the launch. The Space V was the first shuttle to launch from Canaveral in a few decades. They were going up to explore something that supposedly crashed on the moon. This was a pretty big deal.
Forest then put both his arms around my shoulders and cradled me from the side. “He needs you man. You’re the first guy that’s come around in a while that’s been interested in him.”
Interested in him? I mean, I was but how did he just come to assume that. And I wondered if Valerie and Winter had discussed this with Forest considering their behavior that afternoon. “What makes you think I’m interested in him?” I asked for basically no reason.
Forest gave me another one of those strange blank looks. “Because you’re interested in me.”
I froze. Like literally froze and said nothing. I just continued to stare over at Lake. Now that he had told me this, and I remembered the cute things Lake had said to me, the prospect of what Forest was getting at didn’t seem too bad. There was about a minute of silence while I sat and just processed what was going on. Seeing them all partying and Winter playing around made the situation kind of surreal. It felt familiar in an odd way. It was starting to dawn on me that if I continued hanging out with these guys this all would be my life. If I dated Lake, this all would be my life.
I looked back up at Forest and smiled. He smiled as devious as ever and for the first time I got a really good look into his eyes. They were the most beautiful eyes I’d ever really seen. They were almost prettier than the sea brushing against our legs. They were such a bright crystal blue that almost looked otherworldly. As though they were literally not of this world. I pretended I was looking into Lake’s eyes and I’d pretty much made up my mind about at least entertaining this plan of Forest’s.
Valerie’s beautiful voice came echoing over the air like a siren song again and we looked back over toward the group. “It’s starting! Get over here you two.” I started to walk over and then Forest grabbed my hand and stopped me. He smiled at me and then turned around just as they all started to count down behind us. When they got to one I looked up into the sky in the north and after a couple seconds I heard the roar of the shuttle’s thrusters in the
distance and saw beautiful fire and smoke fill the air as the ship shot up into the atmosphere.
As it was reaching a peak in the sky, Forest looked over at me with a weird look on his face. It was clear he was having some sort of existential ponder. “What if there were grander things in life than a space launch?” He smiled at me again and then looked back up toward the historic sky.