About Last Night...

I do remember vividly that the next day was a strange haze for me. The previous night's debauchery was such an out-of-nowhere adventure that by the time I woke up the next morning, it felt as if it had all happened to someone else.

And there was also the sound of water running. It took me a moment to find my bearings before I realized my twin sister, Jenna, was already up and showering, getting ready for school. With our shared bathroom occupied, I headed to the kitchen to grab something quick for breakfast. When I got there, though, my stomach dropped.

Catalina and Dad were already there, enjoying some fruit and cereal while perusing the morning paper. I immediately ducked back down the hallway and returned to my room. What was once a daily ritual had suddenly become too awkward to face.

I mean, last night, my own stepmother blew me! What do you say to your stepmom the morning after?!

Once back in my room, I slipped back into bed. I was gonna need some time to think about this. Unfortunately, fate had other plans, as there was a knock on my door.

"Shower's ready." It was Jenna. I decided to rush into the bathroom and start my own shower. With luck, I could get ready in record time and zoom off to school without having to confront anyone about last night. But by the time I had risen from my bed a second time and opened my door, Catalina and my Dad were standing in the hallway staring back at me.

Catalina kept her gaze locked on me as she shouted back down the hallway.

"Your brother still looks rough, Jenna. You should head out without him." "Alright," was Jenna's grumpy reply. As twins, we always drove to school together. I'm sure the dour tone in Jenna's voice was due to the fact that she'd be going to school today while I was apparently staying home "sick." I gulped hard as Dad and my stepmom moved into my bedroom and shut the door.

"Son," Dad intoned, "we should probably talk about the party last night."

It was a long conversation. Mostly, it consisted of Dad and Catalina repeating, over and over, that things weren't supposed to go that far with me, and that it was a one-time thing. The truth was far more complicated, of course, but I wouldn't learn about the REAL history of the Cuisine Club or its connection to EnGENuTech, the company my Dad worked for, until much later. For now, they both wanted to make sure that I realized that my life wasn't going to be some nonstop orgy at home.

"Rules are rules, son. We may have relaxed them for Club business last night, but things are back to normal now. You still need to listen to Catalina and me. We're your parents." I nodded, even if I didn't necessarily agree. Catalina was barely ten years older than me. But it wasn't like I had much choice in the matter.

"You and Jenna will be 18 in a couple of months," Dad continued. "We can revisit things then, if you've proven you can behave like an adult. Sex is..." He looked up at the ceiling, as if searching for the right word. Catalina broke in.

"It's a responsibility." Dad nodded. "Right. Exactly. Anyway, I know how ... sudden all this must seem. To have a night like last night and then have its possibilities taken away." I grunted. I doubted he could truly empathize with my point of view. Then again, it's not like I was going to jump my stepmom's bones right in front of him.

It sure didn't help that she was only wearing a T-Shirt and panties under her VERY loose-fitting robe, though.

Eventually Dad shook my hand, welcomed me to "manhood," whatever that meant, and Catalina gave me a hug. Then they left my room and told me I had a free day to just relax and soak everything in.

Yay for me.

Things kept up like that for the next month. Catalina continued to wear next to nothing around the house. While I never minded the view, and still didn't, it was incredibly frustrating to know I'd been with her once and probably would not get a second chance. I realize it sounds rather piggish and chauvinistic to think of Catalina in only sexual terms, but-again-I still just 17 at that time. Hardly 10 seconds went by during the day when I wasn't thinking about sex. I spent a lot of "alone time" in the bathroom that September, thinking about Catalina, or Aaliyah, or even sometimes Kim, my older sister, and my memories of Tic-Tac-Blow. Or Mom ... School went by in a blur. I was able to concentrate enough to keep my B-average intact, but my heart really wasn't into studying or doing my homework. Mentally, I was primarily occupied with counting down the days until October 26th, the day Aaliyah said the Cuisine Club would next meet. But once October came around, something happened that threw a monkey wrench into those plans.

Once Jenna and I had gotten to high school, we, like every other freshman, had to choose a foreign language to learn. Almost at random, I had chosen German, which turned out to be more complicated than I thought and had come in handy exactly zero times. Jenna, on the other hand, had selected French. Now in her fourth year with the language, Jenna, along with six others who had made it just as far, was invited to take a field trip to France, where students would spend a week "immersed in Gallic culture, learning from native speakers." At least that's what her permission slip said.

The whole family had forgotten about the trip, even though Jenna'd brought it up months ago. And it was scheduled for the last week of October; our birthday.

Jenna seemed nonplussed by the date. She had celebrated 17 birthdays with me before; to her, it wasn't a big deal to spend one apart. I, of course, was panicking. I loved my sister and enjoyed sharing a birthday with her. But if Jenna was leaving, I knew there'd be that much less of a reason for the Cuisine Club to have a party celebrating our 18th birthday. In short, I was losing a co-headliner.