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{Madeline.}

"Ava and Jamie are gonna pick me up first and then we'll come get you from dad's house," my brother's voice echoed in my bathroom from my phone which was lying next to the sink. I had my hair twisted loosely around a flat iron. I wanted waves for our night out.

"What time?" I asked as I loosened my grip on the iron and gently pulled it away from my head. My hair was blonde, with a natural mix of light and dark. It had been years since I last dyed it, having finally decided I liked my natural color best.

Teddy sounded like he was eating something as he said, "They're supposed to get to my apartment around eight. So we should be at dad's by eight thirty."

Glancing at my phone screen, I saw that it was just past six. That would give me plenty of time to finish getting ready. "Ok, that works," I said as I started winding up the next bunch of hair I wanted to add a wave to. "I should be ready by then."

My brother asked, "Aren't you getting ready now?"

"Yeah?" I answered as I squeezed the iron together. The familiar smell curlers emit when heating up hair reached my nose. I didn't much care for it, but it was just something you got used to as a girl.

Teddy laughed and said, "Jeez, Maddie. Two and a half hours to get ready? It's not like we're going on a date together."

Smiling toward my own reflection in the mirror, I said playfully, "You're gonna swoon when you see me, dear brother."

"Can't wait," he said back, and I knew that was the end of our phone call. He hung up without another word, which was typical of him. We never said "goodbye" to each other. We started that tradition years ago. I'm not even sure why.

Maddie. That's me. Short for Madeline. And my brother's name is Theodore, but most people call him Theo. Except me. He's always been "Teddy" to me. And I love him to death. He is my best friend. We have always been close, even when we were infants. Oh yeah, you should know that we're twins. He sometimes likes to gloat over the fact that he's "older" than me. By seven minutes. But as I said, we've always been close.

Today is a special day. You see, me and Teddy turned twenty-one today. And our friends Ava and Jamie decided they wanted to take us out. Where we were going was a surprise. That made it fun, but it also made me spend extra time figuring out what to wear. In the end, I decided to go with a purple layered skirt that hung just above my knees. I didn't bother with tights, since it was pretty warm out. Then I had a thin, long-sleeved creamy white zip-up crop shirt that hugged my body comfortably. It had two zippers, so you could adjust how much skin was exposed both top and bottom. I went slightly more conservative and zipped it about three inches in either direction. It did leave a comfortable amount of cleavage visible, but not too much. Just enough to look sexy, though. This wasn't the first time I was going on a "date" with my brother. And I did like to tease him. It was always fun to see if I could get a rise out of him.

Satisfied with my hair, I finished applying some makeup. I was a strong believer in subtlety over quantity, so I rarely overdid it. Aside from the basics, I added a soft purple eyeshadow with glitter and some mascara. No eyeliner tonight. Lastly, I painted my lips an earthy, natural violet. Then I used a lip-liner pencil and drew a dark line around the edge of my lips. It was rare that I used lip liner, but tonight was special. You only turned twenty-one once!

Looking at myself in the mirror when I was done, I decided I was happy with the result after nearly two hours of "getting ready". Grabbing my tiny Michael Kors purse (also purple), I slipped into a pair of matching slippers that I had bought at the same time. They were extremely comfortable. Technically they were ballet flats, but I only ever wore them when I was going into the city and wanted to dress fancy. Even though Ava hadn't said where we were going, I assumed we'd be heading downtown.

After telling my dad goodnight and reminding him that I was staying at Teddy's, I waited outside of his house for my brother and friends to show up. It was almost eight thirty. I assumed they would be late, so I perused a few mindless videos on my phone. The three of them showed up a few minutes later and I hopped in the backseat next to Teddy.

"Damn," my brother said as he gave my outfit a thorough inspection. When his eyes lingered on my bosom, I felt my body temperature rising. Even though we were brother and sister, neither of us had ever shown much compunction about openly admiring each other. So I stared right back, taking him in.

Teddy was extremely handsome. His hair was also blonde, but on the darker side. He had a crew cut that actually looked like it had some product in it tonight. That wasn't common for him, and I adored how it looked. His face was angular, with a straight, dimpled chin. His nose was nicely proportioned, not jutting out too far, but also giving him a fresh, masculine look. He had dark green eyes. Tonight, his skin was clean-shaven. As for his attire, he was wearing a white designer t-shirt that looked almost silky, and a pair of dark blue jeans. His arms were muscular and tone, not too large. We both seemed to finish our "inspection" of each other at the same time as our eyes locked after a minute.

"You look hot," he said softly to me, so our friends wouldn't overhear. Not that it would matter. It wasn't like there was something going on between the two of us.

"So do you," I said back, also keeping my voice low. Maybe it was just out of habit.