Under normal circumstances, neither Tyler nor Michelle would ever think of sneaking out of the house at night while their mom was asleep. It simply wasn’t their style. Then again, their current circumstances were far from normal.
His eyes fixed grimly on the road ahead, Tyler held the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip that matched the clenching of his jaw and the general tension of his body. It took all of his willpower to keep driving at an acceptable cruising speed, since every fiber of his being was screaming for him to just go pedal to the metal and get to Gabby’s house as fast as possible. Indeed, the real reason why he managed to hold on to some shred of common sense and general caution was sitting right beside him.
Bunched up in a fetal position on the passenger seat, her green eyes big with fear and her mouth trembling with anxiety, Michelle was still in shock. As he stared ahead and kept driving, Tyler could feel his sister’s gaze remaining fixed intently on him, and even without looking at her he knew that her deer-in-the-headlights expression was still very much there. Tyler wished he could tell Michelle that everything was going to be okay, but he didn’t want to lie to her. If only he could at least tell himself that, and believe it. But he couldn’t do that either.
The siblings were driving through Gabby’s neighborhood when Michelle finally gathered herself enough to speak. She hadn’t said a word since they had got a second text from Gabby, one less catastrophic than the image from the CCTV footage depicting the two of them buttfucking outside her room, but just as crucial. All Gabby had written was ‘Don’t keep me waiting too long…’ followed by a winking emoji. After receiving that text, Michelle and Tyler had snapped out of their shared traumatic lethargy, and soon enough they were in the car, headed to Gabby’s place. Now, after having spent that tense ride in disconsolate silence, Michelle’s words had a particular weight to them, even though her voice was soft and trembling with uncertainty.
“Ty… Do you think she told someone?”
Tyler sighed and gritted his teeth. He had wondered about that very same thing too. Slowly shaking his head, he laid out his tentative conclusions on the subject.
“No, I don’t think so. I mean… I don’t know for sure, but my gut tells me that Gabby is the only one who knows. I sure hope so…”
“Yeah, me too. It’s bad enough that she knows, but at least it’s just one person and not everyone…” Michelle exhaled, her voice getting somewhat steadier as she let her worries pour out. “But why would she wait two days before sending us that pic? That’s weird, right?”
“Not too weird,” Tyler said, shrugging his powerful shoulders and pulling over in front of Gabby’s house. Killing the engine and turning to look at Michelle, he elaborated further, trying to be as calm and rational as his nervousness allowed. “I mean, think about it: that was an image from a security camera, right? And it’s not like people watch security footage all the time. So maybe she just saw it tonight, and that’s why she sent the pic only now. Who knows… But whatever Gabby wants, whatever she’s trying to do here, we shouldn’t give up just yet,” Tyler concluded, tapping into all the confidence he could muster given the situation and looking Michelle right in the eyes, trying to restore some of her courage as well. “Let’s not forget that we still have some leverage too: we know about Gabby and her cousins having sex. She knows that we know, obviously, and I doubt she’d want us to spill the beans. So maybe we shouldn’t be too catastrophic about this after all.”
“Yeah… But if Gabby watched the whole thing, she also knows that we didn’t record her getting double assfucked, so…” Michelle glumly concluded. Then, unbidden but very much needed, a giggle escaped her lips and a resigned smile appeared on them as she added: “See, Ty, I knew we should have made a video of them! It would have been hot and useful!”
That sudden injection of playfulness in the midst of their horrible crisis was a true blessing for Tyler, who instantly laughed along with Michelle, his heart swelling with love as his whole body refilled with the kind of positive energy that his sister never failed to inspire in him, ever. Their tentative yet bright chuckles were still filling the car as Tyler leaned in and planted a passionate kiss on Michelle’s gorgeous lips, getting smooched back in turn with equal intensity. Caring nothing about potentially being seen, needing only to tell each other through that recklessly pure kiss that they were still there, together, close and in love and inseparable, the siblings found themselves breathing easier and feeling better by the time they pulled back and stared into one another’s eyes. They knew that their challenge still awaited, but they would face it together, just like they would face any other trouble that may come their way.
“Ty…” Michelle eventually said, voicing the key question neither of them could figure out. “What do you think she wants?”
Tyler’s brow was furrowed and his jaw set, but his mind was much clearer and his thoughts calmer now as he replied. “I don’t know, Mimi. I really don’t. But we’re about to find out,” he concluded with a resigned if resolute grin. Then, offering his sister his hand, he added: “Ready?”
“Yes,” Michelle nodded with a thin smile, placing her dainty hand into his brother’s and interlocking her fingers with his, “let’s do this.”