Devin and Marissa: Rooftop Rendezvous I

[Marissa Jauntsen]

Sunday, September 1^st, 0100...

The twins' spot on the roof of their home, just outside Marissa's window was currently occupied by a large, soft blanket she'd set out to lay back and take in the stars. Her lips curled slightly as she read the text Cade sent her and thumbed out a reply of her own. They had to be up to at least four or five hundred today alone.

The air was chilly as the winter months were already packed up, on the road, and heading in their direction. She didn't like Montana, but she was more adapted to change than her brother, so she'd always made the most of what she had. She hated the cold compared to always sunny in California where there was no such thing as a 'skirt season'. Here in Montana it was different and as she was now browsing online catalogs for various leggings and pants she could add to her winter ensembles. Sitting cross-legged and lost in her world of shopping she didn't hear her brother approach but instead smirked again and tapped a reply to Cade she knew wold make him blush.

“Hey,” Devin greeted her as he sat down and got comfortable. Like his sister he was dressed down and ready for bed but came out to take the time for their tradition of trying to talk about the things going on in their lives. It wasn't uncommon for twins to share everything in their lives, and the Jauntsens didn't seem to break that form. He noticed the devilish smile in her expression as she was swapping apps on her phone. “Christ, you two have been texting all night.”

“So? You and Lona did not shut up either so blow me, hypocrite.” The Queen of Shelly's tone was just as playful as it was confrontational. “He is asking for a pic. I told him I don't have any makeup on so now he will not let it go, since I am never without it.”

“You fuck him yet, or what?” Tactless and blunt was the forum the twins dealt in with each other.

Marissa turned her head to look at her brother, giving those eyes that said 'really?'. “No,” she said flatly. “I doubt he would know what to do with my vagina if it came with instructions.”

“It does,” he tossed his hand up with a sign of logical debate. “You.”

They both laughed for a moment while Marissa fished one of Jason's specially rolled joints (Marissa was horrible at rolling) and sparked it up while there was a pause in the conversation. She took a hit and offered it to her brother who held up his hand and kindly refused by adding a shake of his head. “Pussy,” she she taunted him through a hoarse breath before exhaling. “We made out at the lake or fishing pond... whatever it is, yesterday.”

Devin shook his head. “I'm not going to want to hear any of this, am I?”

“Hey,” she exhaled another plume of Jason's special strain of home grown marijuana and looked at the joint in her hand. “Damn, this has kick. I had to listen to every sorted detail about you and Lona and I even took the blame for the bloodied towel, so fuck you cooze smear, you are listening to every detail. Every last one. I'm even going to reenact every moan and pique of pleasure. Ready? Marissa being a slut, Chapter 1, page one...”

They both burst into laughter and Devin raised his hands like an editor of a paper seeing a headline forming in his mind. “'It was a warm summer day, I remember it well, Cade's tongue was somewhere in my uterus and I felt I might need to call emergency rescue to pry him out of me...'”

“Ugh,” Marissa sighed with a roll of the eyes. “I wish. No, we just kissed. He's not very, I am not quite sure what to call it, aggressive?”

“You don't say,” her brother leaned away from her with a mock look of shock on her face. She back handed his arm and continued on.

“He was really sweet though, like, a puppy. Ugh,” she grumbled and rolled her eyes. “And he wanted permission for everything. I am lying there with him rubbing my half naked body on his, hell, I was rubbing his wood with my knee, and he still wonders if it is okay to place his hand on my ass.  Yes!  Christ, grab it, smack it, so something with it.” Her brother seemed amused at he complaints, laughing while she toked her jay again. “Still though, like I said, he was sweet. I felt safe, you know? In control and not pressured into anything, like I could walk away and he would not be a complete dick about it and leave me stranded there and having to call you for a ride because I wouldn't put out. I've never had a boyfriend-”

“Woah, woah,” he cut her off and looked at her with all stunned seriousness. “Boyfriend?”

“Kinda,” she hid the flush in her cheeks by looking away and responding to another text from her kinda boyfriend. “Hear me out. Deej, we probably know more about sex, have higher sex drives and are certainly more sexually aggressive than any other people in our respective age group within Shelly and yet, have you noticed we probably have the least experience with it? I am tired of third base. Cass, Autumn, Avalon, all of them have gotten it over with, and I sort of want to do that too. Cade is a decent guy and if, for some reason I have cold feet about it all, I trust him to stop and not be an ass about it. In order to get what I want, I need to give him what he wants, so, yeah... we're sort of a thing. On a trial basis.”

“Ho-ly shit,” her brother shook his head. “Wow. Hanging out with the Nerd Herd and now you're dating one of them? I thought you said this whole reevaluation of our lives was a horrible idea and you wouldn't rest until they were groveling at your feet.”

“Fine,” she admitted. “I may have had a Regina moment, but I will admit... they are not all bad, and I am just using Cade for the sex, so quit making it out to be more than it is. Deej, I am sixteen and I have never had a boyfriend. I am tired of reading my books and watching Netflix and seeing all these people in love and feeling,” she sighed searching her mind for the right word. “Alone? I know I have you, you are my brother and I love you but-”

“-you're heart needs more.” He finished her thought for her.

“Yes.  Thank you.” She nodded once, firmly, knowing that he understood her.

“Hey, if you're happy,” He shrugged. “I have your back, no matter what.”

[Jaunt]

She took another hit from her medicinal distraction, the cherry ember glowing faintly as the smoke his her lungs and the impact began to pull her problems out of he mind and allow her the relaxation and decompression she so desperately craved. “I have to hand it to Jason, he is a creepy fucker but the guy knows how to grow some weed, fuck.” She shook her head to sort her senses. Marissa looked to her brother, who, like her, was texting his significant other. “When's Lona leaving?”

“Tuesday,” Devin said quietly while the light from his screen showed the somber expression he wore. She could tell he was broken up about loosing her and really wasn't in the mood to talk about it, but he needed to. Marissa was always calm and cool, but when she was angry she didn't keep it inside. She exploded like a volcano and burned up everything in her path. Her brother was the opposite, he kept it all inside, trying to deal with his problems all on his own and not showing anyone he was hurting. “Hey, look, I know you really liked her. I'm sorry she's moving away.”

He shrugged and set down his phone down. “Not her fault. Clara's family is totally fucked and they don't give a shit about their children, they just want to wreck homes and do as they please and fuck if their kids are happy or not.”

“Help me understand,” she exhaled another cloud of smoke. “What did you see in her?”

“I dunno,” he gave her the textbook answer every teen on deck. “She was just... ugh, god, I don't know. We were like so different, but so alike, but so... I don't know. I wanted to make a change Emjay, and being with her it just... I never gave it much thought as to how I was going to do that, but she... being with her kind of made shit make sense. I had a blueprint suddenly. Seeing how she actually liked me and wasn't fake it was this whole new mash up of feelings and it was nice to-”

“-have something real?” Marissa returned the favor of finishing his thought for him.

“Exactly.” He nodded softly as he tapped out another reply to Lona and smiled softly. His lips twisted into his familiar smirk of mischief. “Plus, the girl could fuck. Jesus, God could she fuck.”

“Yeah,” she nodded with a pursed smile that told him he didn't need to say more. “I know. I could hear you every day until she got grounded. If I wasn't sexually frustrated before, I sure as hell was afterward. So? Any prospects? How was your corruption of Laurie?”

“No, I'm not really looking for anyone to take Lona's place. I don't know why, but I'm just not really interested right now, y'know? We're going out tomorrow night as sort of a 'good bye' date and then... that's it. I'll never see her again.” Devin gazed off over the dark horizon, taking in the view as much as much as trying to use his unique abilities to to halt the clock and give him an eternity to hold of tomorrow when he'd have to say goodbye. His knew his powers didn't work like that. All he could do was bring the horizon to him, not halt the flow of time. Even if he could, would he want to? Was it fair for him to keep her from her future? “Laurie and I had a good time, she's talking to me at least. I hit all the emotional and psychological pressure points. Wasn't hard. She wears her temper on her sleeve. She hates me though, so, I don't see that going anywhere anytime soon. Which is fine, she's a freshman, so no sense in downgrading. I don't know, Em, I just... I feel like I kinda wanna take a break from it all. You bitches are crazy.”

Snuffing out what little of her joint remained she nodded in agreement as she exhaled the last of it. “Not arguing with you there. Hey, Autumn kinda thinks you are hot. I will totally hook you two up if you want. She hates you, but at least you will be a pretty pairing.”

He repelled her offer with raised hands, laughing a bit. “No thanks. I'm noticing a pattern of my luck with redheads, they all seem to have me, and all have amazing asses. I think I'm fine just hanging back for a bit. I'm chill, it's all good.”

“Okay,” she said defeated. “I do not want to hear later that I sat by and let you be miserable. I offered up quality friends upon your sacrificial alter, oh brother of mine.”

“And I love you for it, dear sister.” He took her hand and kissed the back of it to which she took it back and feigned blushing while batting her lovely lashes at him. “Besides, Autumn went camping with Jason last night. Pretty sure Granola took the eggplant this weekend.”

His sister's eyes narrowed and her lip twitched slightly. “I am sorry... but, what?”

“Yeah.” He replied casually. “You didn't know? She had some majestic spot she just had to show him, so, yeah, doesn't take a genius to figure out what she's talking about. Bout time too, he needs it. A few hours grazing in that carrot patch will do him some good.”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “Yeah. Well, good for them.” She tapped out a message on her phone which conjured up a grin from Devin, knowing she was playing it off as a reply for Cade but he knew she was launching the initial salvo for what would be an amazing Monday morning for Autumn tomorrow. Sure, they were friends, but what's friendship without a little chaos in the mix?

“Speaking of fucking friends,” Marissa tilted her head with a smile, and pressed on. “What about Tawny? She confessed her love, yet again... just fuck her already, it's pathetic watching her squirm.”

“Yeeeaaah,” his shoulders tensed at that one. “I'm not sure where that's going. I mean, she kissed me again, and this time it was like, wow, but, I don't know. I just don't know. Emjay I have no clue what the fuck I'm doing in my life right now. He have all this shit going on with The Dark and aliens, and Men In Black and... fuck, I don't know. I know all these girls and I think,” he looked to his sister with an expression that read he barely understood what he was about to say. “I think I'm just trolling them all to keep my mind off the other shit. Eventually I have to make due on all this shit I'm spewing, and a lot of people are going to be hurt.”

Marissa's lighter clicked and a flame lit the end of her long, slender cigarette. Devin never really understood why people would chase a joint with a cigarette, claiming it got the taste out of their mouth when they both tasted like ass, but to each their own, the weed and nicotine helped her relax. They dealt with the day in their own way. Devin retreated into adrenaline fueled acts of extreme danger and sex while his sister retreated into sex and recreational and not so recreational drug use. If the Fellowship knew how high Marissa was most of the time, they would probably seriously question her judgment. To her credit, she learned how to hide it well by watching her mother. “Who cares? Deej, they are not the ones battling the Dark, we are. If you need to take a few distractions here and there, do it. They should be thanking you for saving their asses from eternal darkness and corruption.”

“Still, doesn't feel right, you know?” He shrugged, sounding unsure. “I mean, I feel like somehow I became some de-facto leader of the Fellowship. Between Jason eating people's spleens and Charlie eviscerating security staff and... fuck Marissa, I have no absolutely no control of my life right now.”

“I know how you feel,” she nodded, taking a drag from her cigarette. “And Jason has apparently gone vegetarian now, I don't think him eating spleens will be a problem anymore. Fucker seems to be on a carrot and strawberry cleanse right now, so, yay for you, one less problem.”

That made Devin warm inside. A little disarray did wonders for the soul sometimes. “Yeah, I guess, there's that. You uh, you okay? You seem a bit irate over that. You were done with Jason, right?”

She tensed and then poised herself. “I never had a use for him. He was cute, obviously hung, and dead on the inside, so he checked a few boxes, but... Jason is violent and no matter how much he tells me he would never hurt me, I am not stupid enough to fall for it. Especially the way I tend to piss people off. For now, I will just let him be. Maybe later I will let him drag his tongue across the sugar cube and hope he gets a taste, if not, his loss.”

“Fair enough,” he agreed. He refrained from telling her that Jason was also an alien from a sex addicted clan of cannibals with a vinyl fetish. Not because he was afraid she'd be scared of him afterward, but because she might just go and sign up. Marissa never turned down free, edgy, stylish, black clothing. “Just don't let him get to you. We need to be together to deal with what's ahead.”

“Why do you care so much?” She asked him silently. She brought he knees to her chest and tapped out a reply to one of Cade's texts while she talked. “I mean, we could go anywhere Deejay. Why not just jaunt us into a bank vault? We clean the place and disappear to Spain or Italy. Oh, I would love to go to Italy.”

“Tomorrow, if you want,” he replied calmly, half listening while half pondering her question. “I care because no one else does, Emjay. That day I slammed Chet in the nose, I don't know... everything changed for me. I could have seriously hurt him, or worse. My anger, our anger it just seemed, I don't know, spent? Like I didn't even understand why we were still pissed at the world and why we were taking it out on a bunch of bumpkins from Nowhere, Montana. I guess-”

“-you grew up?” Marissa tilted her head and blew her smoke upward away from him, dropping off the ash with a flick of her black taloned-shaped nail.

“I guess, yeah. Then suddenly, the very same people I've spent years tormenting have strange and unique powers and were told we need to save the Shelly from this, Dark, thing? Now, all I can think about is how in the hell-”

“-are a handful of people in a leaky boat going to save the world?” She finished his sentence again with a smirk.

He laughed and nodded. “Mortal Kombat reference, nice, but yeah, exactly. We're six-fucking-teen, Em! Getting caught with our respective dates in bed by our parents and getting into a good school should be the most stress we should have to be dealing with right now... not 'defeat an ancient evil and remember if you mess up, the world is fucked'. I mean... what do we say to something like that?”

“Bring it on.” Her shoulders heaved upwards once with such a casual answer. “We will not fail because failure is not an option. I have never thrown a punch in my life, but if I have to stand in the Thunder beside you and stare down the end, then that's where I'll be. You don't have to carry this all on your own. Talk to the others. We'll stand together, I know they feel the same way.”