Karina

"What the hell are you thinking?" Kael whispered the moment we heard the water in the bathroom turn on.

We were in my room, standing near the window. The sun had completely filled the sky, bringing the heat with it, and Kael's stare burned a hole through me.

"What was I supposed to do? Have a picnic in the yard? Why the hell is he here? And what are we going to do about Austin and Elodie? Where the hell are they? They must have stayed together at your place."

I pressed my fingers against my temples and paced the room. Thank god my room was close to the bathroom so we could hear the shower turn on and off. I hoped that Phillips took his time, and didn't take two-minute showers like most soldiers, Kael included.

"You aren't going to do or say anything about Elodie and your brother," Kael said pointedly.

He caught my arm as I paced by him and pulled me closer. "Seriously, Karina. You have to stay out of it. Whatever the fuck it even is. I was trying to get him away from you so you could get a hold of Elodie or your brother and have them get their asses back here."

​​"Don't tell me what to do, Kael," I whispered forcefully. "This is really not good, and it involves the two people I care about the most in the world." I glared at him, yanking my arm away from his gentle grasp. "Two of the three, I mean."

Kael sat down on the edge of my bed and put his head between his knees without saying a word. The last thing either of us needed was to turn on one another right now. I moved forward to comfort him, touching his head; the freshly shaven strands gently poked at my palm.

"He doesn't seem to have any clue that anything is amiss, so as long as we both stay calm, it will be fine. For now, at least." Kael said.

"I'm going to grab my phone before he gets out and see where the hell they are and tell Elodie to come back, now."

He nodded under my touch, and I walked as fast as I could to the living room to get my phone. The screen normally lit up when touched but it stayed black, so I tapped it—still black. No fucking way was my phone dead right now. I heard the water stop running and more panic set in. I rushed back into my room and asked Kael for his phone.

"This isn't not getting involved, Karina." He groaned but placed the phone in my hand anyway.

I called my brother first and couldn't manage to stand still as it rang and rang. His annoying voice came through on his voicemail, and I wanted to break Kael's phone and my brother's neck at the same time. I scrolled and found Elodie's name and tried her.

After two rings her voice chimed in my ear. "Hi, birthday girl!"

"Elodie, where the heck are you guys? You never came back last night." I tried to be as quiet as possible, knowing my walls were paper-thin.

"We're pulling onto the street now. Sorry, we ended up staying at Kael's. I was so tired, and it was nice and quiet, so I asked Austin if I could stay over. Sorry if you were worried," she said. "Is something wrong?" she asked, knowing me well enough to catch on to my tone.

"Well . . ." I tried to respond through the hurt of her lying to me so easily.

Putting my own feelings aside, I didn't know if I should ruin the surprise—if she would even be happy to see Phillips—or if she would want to be warned given the fact that everyone in the friend group just found out that she's having an affair with my brother. Before I could think straight enough to decide, she spoke again.

"We're pulling up. I'm coming right in."

Kael sat up as I handed him back his phone.

"They're here."

"You should stay in here. We both should," he said, nodding at the door. "This isn't our business and Phillips doesn't know anything about Fischer and Elodie yet."

"Are you sure?" I perched on one of his knees. He wrapped his arms around me, but his body still felt stiff as a board.

"If he knew your brother was fucking his wife, your house wouldn't be standing, and that's a fact."

His words rattled me, but they had to be true. Austin and Elodie . . . When? How? What the hell were they thinking? Not only was I still shocked from seeing the photo and them clearly staying the night together, but now she was acting like nothing had happened, which I guess to her, nothing had. I swear my head was going to explode, and we only had seconds before they'd come prancing through the door, totally not expecting Elodie's husband to be here.

As much as I want to stay out of it, I can't—we can't. What if they fight or something?" I asked Kael, grabbing his hand and pulling him toward my bedroom door. He planted his feet and grabbed his hoodie, and pressed it against my chest.

"Put this on, at least." He looked down my body to my short pajama shorts and thin top. The last thing I was thinking about was my outfit, but I tossed the oversized hoodie, which came to my knees, over my head. Kael led me down the hallway. We passed the bathroom as the door to it and the front door opened at the same time.

"Karina! What's going on?" Elodie's voice was full of concern, and her doe eyes fell into relief as she saw me hand in hand with Kael. "You scared me!" she said, holding up the plastic bag in her hand. "We got the baby monitor before it sold out yesterday! And Austin even got them to give me an extra ten dollars off because the box is open and—" Her voice halted abruptly and her blue eyes widened as she looked at the figure behind me.

Austin came barreling in behind her, smiling and tossing his shoes off his feet before looking up. "What's—"

"Phillip?" Elodie's voice was barely above a whisper as she said his name.

She didn't rush toward him and throw her arms around him like I had seen many wives welcoming home their husbands do. She stood still, her eyes frozen on him as he walked into the living room. It had never felt so small.

"El, that's not the reaction I expected," Phillips said to her.

There was a confusing mixture of warmth and iciness to his voice. His dark hair was still wet from the shower, a bit longer than the typical required buzz cut. He stood awkwardly, swaying his lower body slightly, as if they were meeting for the first time.

Elodie's face was frozen for a few seconds before she snapped out of it and broke into a smile. Phillips wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her, lifting her feet off the ground. She yelped in pain, and he put her down.

"The baby," she said, gently pushing at her husband's chest to put some distance between them. "You have to be careful of the baby."

Her direction was calm, but it wasn't lost on me that the bottom of his jaw twitched as she took another step back, away from him.

My heart sank as I finally took in my brother. Austin looked like he was being burned alive. I couldn't imagine how he felt, despite the chaos the two of them had caused. There were so many questions, so much confusion, but right then all I felt was his pain. I could see it, as clear as a cloudless sky; he loved her.

My brother was in love with Elodie.

How did I, his twin, not see this until now? Everything he was feeling in that moment was written on his face; the worry and pain in his blue eyes, the longing in his hands stretched out toward her, the helplessness he felt as he dropped them to his sides.

"Sorry, sorry." Phillips's hands went to Elodie's stomach, and he rubbed it gently over her sweatshirt. Austin's face was turning a sick shade of green.

"Let's give them some privacy?" I suggested, and Elodie's eyes darted to me.

"Yeah, I need to—" My brother was struggling to find the words.

"I'll take you," Kael offered. Austin looked relieved, but as his twin I could tell he was in some form of shock. I'd never seen him so speechless. "And you"—Kael looked my way—"you're coming too."

I wanted to tell him to piss off, that I wasn't going to leave Elodie here with this man, but the man in question was her husband, so it didn't make any sense for me to be this worried. None of what was happening did, so I followed Kael's very direct demand and slid my shoes on, pushing my dead cell phone into the pocket of his hoodie. I'd have to charge it in Kael's truck or wherever we were going.

I wanted to ask Elodie if it was okay to leave, but I didn't want to make things worse or more tense between her and Phillips. Neither of them had moved, like they didn't know what to do around one another, which was also pretty normal when a soldier came home after being gone awhile, and I'm sure having an audience wasn't helping.

"I'll be back home tonight, text me if you need anything," I told Elodie as we made our way out the front door.

Kael said the same to Phillips and gently pushed Austin's back, forcing him to follow us out onto the porch. The three of us were silent as we made our way down the grass. Kael opened the passenger door for me, and there was a lurching sound followed by the splash of liquid on the concrete. I looked back to see my brother hunched over, vomiting on the street. Kael patted my brother's back, and he was saying something that I couldn't hear.

Kael must have felt so conflicted between his best friend and my brother. We were all in the middle of a spiderweb and there was no way for all of it to fall into place peacefully. Someone was bound to get bitten.

"Breathe . . . try to breathe." Kael continued to rub his hand across my brother's back.

"This is so fucked up," Austin mumbled, his voice broken as he wiped his sleeve across his chin.

I wondered if he was going to elaborate, but it wasn't the time to push him. Not yet.

After Austin was done being sick, we drove with only the loud rumble of Kael's truck. I hadn't even brushed my teeth, and it was late in the morning. Austin was staring out the window in a void, his lids heavy, his head slumped. It didn't feel right to start grilling my brother about Elodie right now, but we also had to warn him that people knew about the two of them, and now that Phillips was back things were even more complicated. My head ached and I only realized I was crying when Kael reached over and wiped my cheek. I wasn't sure if it was for my brother, or because of the stress of all of it, or for my best friend, who didn't seem to recognize her own husband.