The Other Side of Me – Part 12
by Limbo’s Mistress

It turned out that shopping with Katie was as much an eye-opening experience as cheer practice.

When we arrived at the mall, a two-story monolith to consumerism I instantly recognized from my own dimension, I parked the Jeep near the entrance to one of the end anchoring department stores. My original thought was that we would run into the galleria, pick out a dress for Katie to wear to her dance, and then zoom back home. According to Shelly, we weren’t expected to be at the Kappa mixer before ten o’clock, which would give me a couple of hours to prepare myself, mentally and physically, for the party.

However, I quickly learned that simply “popping in and out” wasn’t what happened when sisters went shopping. Particularly when one of the siblings was Katie.

I stopped a few feet inside the store’s entrance and turned to her. “So, uh, where do we start? Where would the formal dresses be?”

“Juniors and Misses,” she said, continuing to walk along the polished tile floor. She didn’t bother to look back at me.

“Alright,” I said, hurrying to catch up.

We detoured around a humongous cosmetics counter staffed with five women of indeterminate ages. Given the amount of makeup each sported, I would say they were somewhere between nineteen and fifty. One member of the quintet was answering the questions of a couple of girls a little younger than Katie, with the remaining four seeming completely bored. All painted up and nowhere to go.

As we continued on past, I realized that Katie was almost marching. Like she was in a hurry for some reason.

“Katie-Kat,” I said. “What is …” The words died on my lips as my eyes latched onto a couple of signs belonging to a couple of famous brands. “Edna Bower? Tammy Hilfiger?”

Katie stopped as well, and followed my amused gaze. She looked back to me with a disinterested shrug. “You don’t have those companies back in your world?” The emphasis she put on the last two words was not unnoticed.

I shook my head with a frown. “Not exactly. It’s just … they’re women in this universe. The ones I know were founded by men.”

She simply nodded and started walking again.

Sighing, I put my hand on her arm and guided us out of the pathway of the other shoppers. When we were far enough away from any overhearing ears, I looked into her face.

“What’s wrong? You’ve been sullen since we got in the car.” I shook my head. “You were the one who wanted to go shopping with me.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and looked away from me, staring at the dark orange carpet beneath our feet.

“Would it be the end of the world if you stayed here?” she asked in a quiet voice. “Permanently.”

My heart began to ache in response to my understanding of what had her upset. “I can’t. This isn’t my home.”

Her small shoulders lifted and dropped. “It could be. You seem to be adjusting to living as Charlene pretty well. Sometimes I have to remind myself that you were a guy until recently.”

I reached out and put my hand lightly on her shoulder. Having grown up with her dimensional counterpart, I knew there was more she wanted to say. Something bursting to get off her chest that was being held back by sheer force of will. My own Katie was notorious for doing that exact same thing. I moved around to stand in front of her and used the hand not on her shoulder to tilt her chin up so we could look at each other.

“But?” I asked, arching a brow at her. “I know there’s a ‘but’ in there somewhere.”

She shook her head. “It’s nothing.”

“You might as well tell me what’s on your mind, Katie-Kat. I know you far too well to simply accept you have nothing else you want to say.”

Her eyes widened for a moment, allowing me to see tears were attempting to form. Then she quickly faced away from me, looking across the racks of clothing to the entrance of the mall.

“She doesn’t.”

“She doesn’t what?” I didn’t think I needed to ask who “she” was.

“Know me that well.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that comment. Granted, I detected a slightly confrontational vibe that first evening before I told her who I really was. It wasn’t until I informed her of what was going on that her attitude toward me shifted. Much like that first night, she now acted standoffish, though the tone in her voice was one of sadness, rather than of anger.

“I’m sure she does,” I said, trying to make my words carry the belief I didn’t really feel. The longer I navigated through Charlene’s life, the more my opinion of other-universal duplicate slid toward the unfavorable. She’d already proven that her loyalty to friends and lovers was mutable. To think she might not care about her sister as much as I cared about mine wasn’t that hard to fathom.

Katie sighed, finally turning back to face me. The wetness in her eyes remained, but it seemed as if she’d overcome the urge to cry.

“No, she doesn’t. She lives at home, Chuck, but she’s never really there. Not like you’ve been. She’s always on her phone with her friends. Or over at Jackson’s. When we do get a chance to talk, it’s always about her. What’s going on in her life. Anytime I try to tell her about things related to my stuff, she just … shuts down.” She sighed loudly. “She doesn’t care at all.”

I opened my mouth, nearly saying the one thing I realized at the last second would probably be the opposite of what Katie needed to hear. After all, how many times had Charlene’s actions or behavior been pardoned with what had happened to her mom? Even if Shelly was right that she wasn’t truly over it, it was plain to see the accident, and her associated guilt, was serving as some sort of … crutch.

I took a moment to gather my thoughts, then gave her arm a light squeeze. She sniffled again, turning to look at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “Look, I shouldn’t speak for Charlene because I can’t. Not with complete and total honesty. However, I am positive that she loves you. I tried to put a tiny smile on my face to show her how much I wanted to believe my words. “I mean, who wouldn’t. Being in this insanely different world is confusing enough, and you have been a lifesaver in helping me survive it. Being around you the past two days has made me recognize how much I’ve stopped being close with my own Katie.”

She gave me a slightly dubious look, but remained silent.

“I haven’t always been the best big brother to her. I mean, we get along fine most of the time. Since I moved out, though, it might be a week or two between us seeing each other. Or even talking to each other. Most of those times are during family dinners, so there’s not a lot of bonding going on there.”

She nodded, then narrowed her eyes slightly at me. “Does that mean you are going to spend more time with her? When you, uh get back home?”

“Yes. Without question.” I couldn’t help but grin a little as I tilted my head in the direction of the mall opening. “Of course, I probably won’t let her take me shopping. That will be something shared only between you and me.”

Her mouth curled into a smile, despite her best attempt to fight it. Finally, the grin that appeared remained fixed in place.

“I don’t know, Chuck. You might ought to rethink that. If your sense of fashion is as bad over there as it is here, you definitely need all the help you can get.”

I stuck my tongue out at her, but then followed it with a horribly loud giggle.

“Just for that, I should just drive us back home.”

Her eyes widened slightly with a sense of panic. “You wouldn’t dare. You promised Daddy you’d buy me a dress.”

“Fine, then. Let’s get started.”

She nodded and turned around. Then, without warning, she spun back and threw her arms around me, hugging me tightly for several long seconds. When she finally released me so I could breathe again, she looked up at me. The dampness in her eyes was back.

“Thank you, Charles.”

My own vision blurred slightly. “You’re welcome, Katie-Kat.”

We scoured the department stores racks for a suitable ensemble for Katie, but the store’s paltry offerings offered zero appeal, and we abandoned the national chain to head out into the mall. The din of the multitude of conversations taking place echoed around the cavernous opening, seeming the amplify the longer we stood in one place.

“Where to?” I asked.

She tapped on her lower lip with one finger, then looked over at me with a concerned expression.

“What did Daddy say our limit was?”

I grinned. “At first, he said we couldn’t spend more than two hundred. However, I thought that might not be enough, so I cajoled him to increase it to four. Given his mumbled comments at the time, I think whatever we spend will be worth it to him as long as he doesn’t have to be the one taking you shopping.”

She nodded, then pulled on my arm. “Let’s try Darling Divas first. Joelle Daniels said they have a totally hot selection.”

“Darling Divas?” I mimicked, allowing Katie to lead me away by the hand. From the name, it wasn’t hard to figure it was a female-only type of establishment. Which meant I had never heard of it. Of course, for all I knew, it didn’t exist back home.

Katie dragged me to a nearby set of escalators that carried us up to the second floor, and then down along a parade of neon-signed storefronts until we stood at the entrance of our destination. The bright, hot pink sign hanging in one of the windows was garishly cute, each ornately scripted “D” intertwined with the other. Glancing in through the gigantic plate glass front of the establishment, I spotted a dozen or so shoppers perusing the wares inside. The majority of them looked around Katie’s age, although I did see a set of blonde-haired twins who could have been my classmates at the university.

Just as I managed to finish my initial assessment of the place, Katie pulled open one of the frosted doors, and ushered me inside.

As a guy, I almost never bought my clothes at the mall. I did most of my shopping online, selecting items of various sizes and just sending back whatever didn’t fit. The dozen or so times I’d actually been to the galleria back home was only because whatever girl I was currently dating wanted to go. Despite my opinion that shopping was just a way for women to waste time, I grudgingly accepted it as a necessary evil.

So, once Katie and I were inside, I disengaged my hand from hers so that I could drop into the standard male reaction of being in a store full of women’s clothing. I found a rack near the first one Katie began searching and leaned on it disinterestedly. Pulling my phone out of my purse, I saw three missed texts from Rachel reminding me of the mixer, one from Shelly informing me that she would be swinging by the house to pick me up at nine-thirty, and one from Jackson that said he had completed the quantum flow scanner.

I quickly responded to all three. I told Shelly that nine-thirty would be fine, Jackson that I would see him after breakfast on Saturday, and informed Rachel that I was super looking forward to the party and that I would make sure I didn’t do anything to embarrass her.

While I was keeping the plates of Charlene’s social life in the air, Katie had scoured the row of emerald green dresses until she found one in her size. She pulled it away from the others, held it up to her front, and spun around to look at me.

“What do you think about …” She stopped in mid-sentence, eyes widening at me. “What are you doing?”

I stood up straight, quickly shoving my phone back into my bag as I glanced around to make sure that none of the other patrons were paying us any attention. I felt my face warm at the sensation that I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t.

“Uh, nothing. I mean, just hanging out.” Then I noticed the uber annoyed face she was making. “I mean, what should I be doing?”

The eye roll I received made me fear that both of her were going to dislodge from their sockets, drop to the floor, and scurry away under a nearby sales counter.

“Shopping, Chuck” she said in a low voice full of pity. “When girls go out shopping together, they don’t just lean against a rack with a bored look on their faces while the others hunt down prizes. That’s a total guy move.”

“Fine,” I said with a sigh, taking a couple of steps toward her. I eyed the green gown for a few seconds before shaking my head. “I don’t know about that one, Katie-Kat. Just not feeling it.” I glanced at the rest of the choices nearby, nodding my head at the next rack over. “Why don’t you try the blue one? Something tells me it would look better on you than the green.”

She crinkled up her nose at me, but handed me the emerald dress while she searched through the blue ones for her size. As with the first one, she turned to face me and held the dress up before her.

“Well?”

I took a minute to think about the selection before finally nodding. “Yeah, I like that. It goes really well with your skin tone and better compliments your eyes.”

“Goes well with my skin tone? Seriously?” She laughed and shook her head. “You’re hilarious.” Spotting a wall mirror about ten feet away, she strolled over and admired herself for a few moments.

As the seconds ticked by, I watched as her expression went from amused, to surprised, before settling on absolutely shocked. She blinked a couple of times, then whirled around to stare dumbfoundedly at me.

“You’re right. About this color. How the hell are you right?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. I just told you what I thought looked good. I mean, both of them compliment your eyes, but the green not so much with your skin. The blue, though, because it’s a dark blue …”

“Royal,” she said, turning to admire herself again. “It’s called royal blue.”

“Whatever,” I replied, walking over to stand next to her. “The point is, when I actually focused on it, I could tell there were subtle differences. Differences that made the choice easier.” I frowned, remembering the fleeting impressions I’d gotten when noticing other students. Like a momentary blip of surprise or appreciation at what they were wearing. “Come to think of it, I think I’ve been doing it all day.”

It was like the rest of Charlene’s aspects I’d begun to absorb. Only not quite as obvious or in my face as walking, standing, or cheering. Or that other thing I was currently refusing to acknowledge.

“So, now you’re as good at clothing coordination as Charlene?”

I held my hands out to the side and shrugged. “Think of it like a bonus package. Came with these extra-wide hips and big ass.”

“It’s called being curvy, Chuck. Women are curvy.” She stuck her tongue out at me and turned back to the mirror, studying her reflection. “You don’t think Daddy will say it’s too short, do you?” Katie asked, looking up at me in the reflective surface. “You know how he can be.”

“Actually, not so much. However, if you needed a counter argument, you could always point out that the hem is just barely above your knees, and the neckline doesn’t seem to be that deep. I think you’ll be okay.”

She nodded, looking at herself again. “Good point. Plus, you’ll help me out if he starts complaining, right?”

I laughed. “Yes, I promise.”

Katie pulled the dress away from her and walked toward the dressing rooms. I followed, but stopped her right before she vanished through the curtains.

“Uh, I’m not supposed to go back there with you, am I?”

“Well, normally Charlie would. Just to save time. Though, if it’s going to make you all weird, then you can wait out here.”

Even though I had seen her in her underwear recently, and she’d seen my new body in far less, it still gave me a bit of the willies to think about being in the tiny cubicle while she was practically naked. We might both be girls on the outside, but the majority of what was still on my inside was still male.

“I’ll wait.”

After she passed through the curtain, I milled around the racks closest to the dressing rooms. The selections here were marked as being “Clearance”, but the prices attached to them caused me a bit of alarm.

However, I did find this adorable dark peach cardigan that practically siren called to me. I had it draped over my arm when Katie returned in the royal blue dress.

“Well?” she asked, turning a slow circle before me.

I had been correct in my assessment of the length of the hem and the neckline. What I hadn’t been able to tell when she was merely holding it before her was just how well it clung to her still-developing form. For a second or two, I would have said she could pass for eighteen, rather than sixteen. By the time she did her hair and makeup, she would go from “really cute” to “fucking gorgeous”.

The small spike of jealousy that pierced my heart made me frown.

“What?” she asked in a panicked voice. She put her hands on the sides of the dress and looked down at herself for several seconds before looking back up at me. “What’s wrong with it?”

I blinked, then shook my head. “Nothing’s wrong with it, Katie-Kat,” I said, looking for an explanation that didn’t involve my sudden and disturbing flash of envy. “I was just thinking that, uh, it makes you look more mature. Which, kind of made me think of my Katie.”

She stared at me, confused, for a moment. Then she nodded solemnly. “If you can’t get home, you won’t see her grow up.”

I crossed over to her and put my hands on both her bare arms. “No. But if that happens, I promise that I will never regret having you instead of her. This universe, or that one, you are my sister. Okay?”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.” She looked down at the tag hanging off the right side of the dress. “Two fifty-nine.” When she glanced back up, she spotted the cardigan. “For you?”

My cheeks warmed as I forced a smile onto my face. “Uh, it called to me?”

Katie’s eyes widened comically. Right behind that was a short burst of laughter that caught the attention of everyone around us.

“Oh, that is such a Charlie thing to say.”

We paid for the dress and the sweater, before leaving Darling Divas to journey to three different shoe stores in search of the perfect pair of matching pumps. The first one had a pair with a two-inch heel and a finish that was a perfect match for Katie’s new purchase. However, they didn’t have them in her size. The second store had her size, but not the right color. The third, though, was where we hit the jackpot.

Eighty more of Daddy’s dollars later, we were back in the corridor with another bag in my hand.

“We should probably get something to eat,” I said, nodding my head at the food court. “It’s nearly six-thirty.”

She agreed and we walked down to see what choices we had. After a short debate, we settled on a Hawaiian burger place. Katie ordered a Luau Burger with Swiss. I choice a pineapple and chicken breast sandwich. We also decided to split an order of fries.

Once we had our food and found a table to sit at, I decided that Charlene’s lack of interest in her sister’s social life required me to take the reins.

“So, your first winter formal.” I said, grinning at her over the sandwich in my hands. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

She opened her mouth, and from the look on her face, it seemed as if she was going to inform me that I already knew the answer. Before she remembered it wasn’t her sister inside my skull.

“Oh,” she said as a bit of color crept onto her cheeks. “Henry Baker. I hope.”

When I arched a brow, the crimson hue of her face deepened.

“Okay, so Jana Lewis’s brother, Roger, told her that Henry asked him to ask her to ask me if anyone had asked me yet.”

I blinked, nearly choking on my soda. When I managed to recover my breath, I shook my head and grinned. “There were a lot of ‘asks’ in that statement, girl.” I wiped my mouth with my napkin. “So, according to a really long series of he-said, she-said, you may or may not be going with Henry Baker?”

She nodded, her face now a glowing scarlet.

“When is the dance?”

“Three weeks from tomorrow.” A slight look of panic appeared on her flushed face. “Oh-Em-Gee, should I be worried Henry’s comment to Roger was almost two weeks ago? What if he’s changed his mind and wants to take someone else?”

I laughed. “First of all, he’d have to be completely stupid to want to go with another girl.”

Her eyes widened. “You really think so?”

“I do,” I said as I smirked. “After all, you’re Charlie Miller’s sister. Who wouldn’t want to go out with you?”

Her jaw dropped open in apparent surprise, then she shook her head, glowering at me.

“For a second, I thought she’d come back,” she said, still seething. “That would be totally something she would say.”

I let my grin drop and gave her my most sincere look. “Sorry, Katie-Kat. I just couldn’t resist. But, on the plus side, that means I’m getting better at pretending to be her.”

“No need to overdo it, though.”

I nodded, reaching out to put my hand on top of hers. “I am really sorry. It was a mean trick, and after what we talked about earlier, I should have known better. Forgive me?”

She looked at my face, studying it as if to make sure I was being honest and not trying to fool her again. Then she nodded. “Forgiven.”

“Great,” I said, leaning back in my own seat. “And as for Henry? Don’t sweat it. If he’s anything like the rest of us guys, he will put it off actually asking you until about a week out from the event.”

“Really?”

I nodded. “Trust me. I have sort of an inside track into how guys usually think.”

“True.”

As we continued eating, we talked like a couple of … sisters. I made sure to keep the conversation’s focus mainly on Katie. The more I learned about what her life was like, what she enjoyed, and who she hung around with, the more I began to understand just how much I didn’t know about my Katie. Last time we had family dinner; she mentioned some cute boy who kept staring at her in English class.

Of course, I’d been too busy trying to shovel pasta in my mouth so I could head back to campus. Thinking on it now, I realized that I couldn’t even recall his name, despite her mentioning it more than a dozen times over the course of the meal.

Which only served to remind me that I was a pretty shitty brother.

After dinner, Katie convinced me to hit up a couple more shops. I tried at first to remind her that we were only supposed to be buying stuff for her upcoming social event, but she simply pointed at the smaller of the two bags bearing the Double-D logo.

“I don’t think that sweater was on the approved list,” she said with a smirk.

I shrugged. “It was cute, on sale, and we both know you’re going to borrow it the first chance you get. Winning all the way around as far as I can tell.”

Over the course of the next hour, we shopped and talked and made mental notes of what we were going to buy next time. Finally, we called it quits on the adventure and stopped at a Starbuck’s kiosk located on the malls’ first floor. We each got an iced macchiato and eventually found an empty bench to sit on.

I placed our bags beside the bench and stretched out my legs, wiggling my toes in my sneakers.

“We’re going to have to go soon,” I said, glancing down at my phone. “I still need to get ready for tonight.”

“Are you really going to the mixer?” she asked, taking a sip of her beverage.

I nodded reluctantly. “Against my better judgement. I thought it was bad enough when I just had to juggle Charlie’s schoolwork and cheer practice. Never figured pledging a snobby sorority to be a part of my life.”

“Charlene’s been talking about joining the Kappas ever since the first week of school. I thought she was joking at first, but then Shelly decided to join her in the madness.”

“Madness is right. Charlene and Shelly seem to be the complete opposite of that chick in charge.” I shook my head. “She’s a seriously stuck-up bitch.”

Katie’s eyes expanded and she began to cough loudly as the coffee in her mouth shot down the wrong pipe. I reached over and pounded lightly on her back until she managed to get the sharp barks under control.

“Sorry,” she said in a croaking voice. “I just didn’t expect to ever hear that statement come out of that face.” She coughed a few more times, then wiped her mouth with one of the napkins in her hand. “Charlene would shit kittens if she heard you talk about Rachel Bostwick like that. She practically idolizes that ice queen.”

“Why?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in inquiry. “I would have thought their personalities would totally clash.” Then I shrugged. “Though, I’m finding out that Charlene isn’t as much like me as I thought on a daily basis.”

That morose look reappeared on Katie’s face. “No, she’s really not.” She took another swig from her straw, careful to swallow properly this time. “So, tell the truth, Chuck. Do you like being her?”

As fate would have it, it was my turn to choke on a mouthful of coffee. In repayment for my assistance, Katie pounded on my back a few times, though she was simultaneously giggling as she did so.

“Sorry,” she said between snickers. “I probably should have made sure you weren’t trying to drink when I asked that.”

I shook my head, coughed a few more times, then set my drink down next to me. I looked at her for a few seconds before turning my gaze out to the people walking back and forth before us. Most of them seemed to be focused on other things, many with a phone next to their ears. A few, however, glanced our way.

The majority of those were male.

“That’s not an easy question to answer, Katie-Kat.”

“Actually, it is. The answer is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”

I opened my mouth to inform her that the simple answer would be “no”. But … I couldn’t. I mean, yeah, I kind of missed being Charles. Although, through the lens that was Charlene’s life, mine was extremely dull.

If I took stock of what I missed, really missed, the only thing I could come up with was my mom. Charlene’s dad wasn’t exactly like my own father, but a close enough approximation that it was negligible. Katie acted a lot like the version in my dimension. Of course, I also had to admit that the distance that had grown between us over the past couple of years kind of muted the accuracy of my memories.

Friends? Other than Jackson, Charles didn’t have “friends”. He had “acquaintances”. I lived with three other guys, but I rarely spent any time hanging out with them. I was a member of a collegiate athletic team, though I would be hard-pressed to tell you anything meaningful about any of them.

I didn’t even spend that much time with my own family.

A loner. That would be the perfect way to describe Charles Miller.

Only, that wasn’t Charlene at all. She was popular, had close friends (even if some of them were questionable), and was everything I wasn’t.

“Uh-oh,” Katie said softly, breaking my internal existential crisis. “Hottie alert.”

I turned to look at her, then followed her gaze to see if I could locate whomever had managed to capture her attention. It took a second or two, but eventually I succeeded.

The boy was about her age, with dark brown hair styled into a messy surfer’s cut and a symmetrical face that I realized was not unattractive. His eyes, slightly wider than normal, were an incredible shade of dazzling blue and seemed to be looking right at me.

Or rather, at Katie.

I glanced back at my sister, wondering if I was going to need to use the napkin in my hand to wipe the drool that was likely to start dribbling out of her partially open mouth at any second. I’d heard the word “smitten” used in conjunction with amorous adoration, but I never actually expected to see it in the flesh.

Especially not on my little sister.

“You know him?” I asked, keeping my face turned away from the approaching boy.

“Sebastian North,” she said in a quiet voice that was completely detached from reality, barely moving her lips. “He’s a junior and so freaking yummy.”

I smirked at her stunned behavior and turned back to the object of her infatuation. A smart-ass comment began to form on my lips as my eyes slid back to the boy before continuing on to the larger male walking beside him.

Sebastian’s companion’s eyes met mine at the same time, and a large smile formed on his face.

“Hey, Charlie,” Mike the Basketball Player said as he and Sebastian stopped a few feet from where Katie and I sat. Then his smile faltered a bit, probably because I wasn’t returning it. “Oh, sorry. I’m Mike. We met yesterday.”

I nodded slowly, though I really couldn’t respond aloud. I was a bit too busy drinking in the view. When I’d encountered him the previous morning, I’d been way too concerned with getting to class on time. Oh, and with trying to figure out how to convince people I was who they thought I was. Which meant I really hadn’t had the opportunity to really see him.

He had the same shade of dark brown hair as his younger brother, though his was shorter and styled in a more mature fashion. The polo shirt from the previous day had been replaced with a dark gray tee that seemed like it might be a size, or two, too small and which clung to his well-defined torso like a second skin.

In a momentary flash of comparison, where Danny Morris was bigger and larger, Mike had the build of a someone who required both strength and speed. He was also taller than the other boy, probably well over six feet.

“Charlie?” Katie hissed softly, making me snap back to the present.

“Oh, yeah. Uh, hey!” I lifted my hand and waved. “Of course. I totally remember.”

Oh … my … god. Please tell me I wasn’t babbling.

“I’m Katie,” Katie said, smiling at Mike and Sebastian. “Charlie’s sister.”

“Nice to meet you,” Mike replied as he tore his gaze from me to acknowledge the girl seated next to me.

“I’m Sebastian,” said the other boy, more to Katie than to me.

“I know. We both go to Emerson High.”

“We do?” The boy narrowed his eyes a bit at her, as if trying to determine if he’d seen her before now that he knew it was a possibility. “Wait, don’t you have Mr. Drummond for French? Second period?”

Katie nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. You have him for third. I’ve seen you walking into the class as I’m trying to get out the door.”

Sebastian smiled, and I thought my kid sister was going to erupt into flames.

“I’ll be sure to say hello next time.”

Katie giggled, causing me to nearly roll my eyes. That was, until I turned my attention back to the taller brother and realized that his attention was completely focused on me.

“Did you pass?”

I blinked up at him. “Excuse me?”

“Your Trig exam? The one you were running late for yesterday.”

“Oh!” my face ignited into a flambé of embarrassment. “Uh, yeah. I’m pretty sure I did.”

“She’s more than pretty sure,” Katie added reaching out to pat me lightly on the shoulder. “Charlie’s a whiz at math. She probably aced the dang thing.”

Mike’s smile widened. Not in a creepy-like way, but in actual interest and amusement. Flirtatious, actually.

“Is that so? Maybe you can tutor me sometime. I’m struggling a little with Geometry.”

I stared up at him, unable to tear my eyes away, as a haphazard whirlwind of thoughts spun around inside my head. Did his smile just get bigger? Is he hitting on me? Why is he hitting on me? Oh my god, I’m a hot mess! Jesus, is he cuter than he was yesterday? I’m still in my practice clothes and probably smell like a skunk. I wonder what his lips taste like.

Recoiling backward against the bench, I threw up both hands, palms toward Mike.

“I have a boyfriend!”

The words just leapt out of my throat. Way too fast and definitely way too loud. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Katie jump slightly and finally turn her attention away from the brothers to goggle at me.

“Oh,” Mike said, his smile falling into a neutral expression. “I see.”

My already burning face suddenly turned into a nuclear meltdown. Why had I blurted that out? What the hell was wrong with me? I tried to rationalize my behavior, but all I could come up with was that Charlene was obviously mentally unstable and that instability was being transferred to me.

“Uh, I mean …” I bit down on my lip so hard I thought I was going to draw blood.

“No,” Mike said, his smile returning but stopping at just being friendly. “I might have been a little too forward.” He tilted his head slightly to the side, looking down at me. “But I am serious about getting help with math. I just should have been a little less … you know.”

I nodded my head rapidly, still trying to get my blood pressure to come down out of low-earth orbit. I was sure the three of them could hear my heart slamming against my chest. Any second now, it would tear through my ribcage and leap out like that thing from Alien.

“Yeah,” I said, finally finding my voice. “No, I was just … misunderstanding.” I shrugged and forced a smile on my face, though I was quite sure it came out as a grimace. “Maybe we could look at your stuff … I mean your math … sometime. See where you’re, uh, you know, struggling.”

Wasn’t Charlene supposed to be this professional flirt? According to Shelly, she was like the perfect social butterfly. I felt like a baby giraffe on ice skates in a hurricane. My romance game was totally falling flat.

Though, I wasn’t sure if the disappointment I felt was due to having made myself look like a fool in front of a really cute guy, or if it was because I was thinking of another male as a really cute guys.

“Come, dude,” Sebastian said as he pulled on Mike’s arm. “We’re going to miss the previews.” Then he looked at Katie, flashing a smile that was as flirty as his brother’s had been. “We’re going to see the new Schwarzenegger movie. You guys should join us.”

Mike frowned, finally looking away from me to his sibling. “Seb, I’m sure they’ve already got plans.”

“Yeah,” Katie said with a voice full of teen angst and despair. “Charlie’s got a thing to go to tonight with her sorority.”

Mike glanced back to me; eyebrow arched. “Which one?”

“Kappa Omega,” I said with a small feeling of relief. If I didn’t have a prior engagement to attend on Charlene’s behalf, I might have suggested we take Sebastian up on the offer.

“Cool.” His grin never changed. “Maybe next time.”

“Definitely,” his brother added, directing his comment at Katie.

The two of them sauntered off, making their way to the red, yellow, and white neon of the mall’s six screen movie house. As soon as they were out of earshot, Katie twisted around to look at me with ridiculously large eyes.

“Oh …oh, shit.” Katie breathed, looking from me to the departing duo and back a couple of times. “Oh … wow.”

“What?” I snapped, sounding a lot angrier than I actually felt. My face was still rather warm and the whooshing of my pulse was doing absolutely nothing to improve the state of my fluttering tummy.

“You totally like him, don’t you? As in ‘like’ like?”

I blinked, whipping my head away from receding Mike’s jean-clad butt to stare at her.

“What? No.” I gritted my teeth and tapped my temple. “I’m a guy in here, remember?”

The grin on her face would not be dissuaded. If anything, it widened.

“Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say that you’re ‘mostly’ a guy in there? After all, aren’t you and Charlene trading personality traits?”

“That doesn’t mean anything, Katie. It’s one thing to adopt her walk. Or her athletic skills.”

She nodded, still smiling. “Oh. But you don’t think that might include her attraction to handsome guys with equally hot younger brothers?”

“I …” Jesus, my heartrate was still spiking, though it was noticeably less rapid than a minute before. “No … I …” My hands rose and pressed against my temples as the whole interaction with Mike replayed in my head, this time from the perspective of an outside observer.

He had been flirting with me, and I had enjoyed it. Immensely. Though, I couldn’t exactly figure out why. It was almost the same way I’d felt toward Shelly when we were doing our secret practice session.

Was I now attracted to both men and women? Or was my attraction to Mike a part of a process leading down a path that would end with me being a straight female?

I needed time to sit and think and try to figure myself out. I also needed to do it before Shelly came to pick me up.

Standing, I grabbed our bags and looked at Katie.

“Come on,” I said, tossing the rest of my coffee into the nearest trash bin. “We’re leaving.”