Loving Siblings: Aidan & Dionne by Catharina Shields

what he once told her. He once teased her,
telling her she had a sexy butt. Whatever he saw in that grotesque
thing was a mystery to her, but the fact that he did affected her
more than she first thought.
    With an exasperated sigh, she turned and
pulled out a dresser drawer, taking out a fresh pair of panties and
her pajama set. It was a pretty pink and white, two-piece. It was
sleeveless with a wide, loose hem that moved like a bell around her
flat tummy when she walked. Her shorts were a little longer and
baggier than most shorts for the current fashion, falling nearly
mid-thigh, but it was extra camouflage for her distracting rear
end.
    She was never one to reveal too much
of her body if she could help it. She knew she was probably the
only girl in the world who
still wore a bathing suit rather than some sexy bikini. She just
didn’t think she had the right body for something as revealing as
that.
    She wasn’t overly skinny, as was the norm in
their community, but she wasn’t overweight, either. Not like she’d
been throughout most of her life. She hated her backside, though,
because it was so disproportionate to the rest of her.
    It was huge.
    “ You could land a freakin’ Boeing 747
on it,” she mumbled.
    When she was done dressing, she sat on the
bed and took up the family photo album from a stack beside her.
Usually, a house full of boisterous van Nuys children provided the
distraction she desperately needed, but no one was home. And she
was still tingling.
    It was Saturday. Their parents were either
still at Aidan’s party, or they were off with her younger siblings
visiting friends. Helmut was, most likely, still in Loma Linda. She
expected his good night call in an hour or so.
    “ A good night?” she scoffed. “Right. Not after
a bad day like today.” She
sighed, turning another solid album page.
    She saw an old photograph of Mom and her on
the day they brought Aidan home. Wrapped in a blue and white baby
blanket, Aidan came as a complete package. A week’s worth of
diapers, baby formula, carefully typed instructions, short medical
history, and detailed records. He also came with a first and middle
name. It was a condition his young, biological mother insisted
upon: Aidan Boyd.
    Dionne remembered how ecstatic she’d
been. She was going to be a big sister for the first time, and she
couldn’t have wished for a more beautiful baby brother. And oh ! Aidan was absolutely beautiful as a baby, and he only got
more beautiful as he grew up, soon breaking hearts at a very young
age.
    Little did they know this was just a
prelude for things to come. Little did she know the happy summer day when she held her
new baby brother in her arms as she sat beside Mom on the sofa, he
would come to mean more to her than she could’ve ever imagined
possible.
    Their father snapped rolls and rolls full of
photos. Many of them were of her all teary-eyed just like Mom. A
few were of her holding Aidan close to her heart, like the one she
was looking at now. He’d forever occupy a special inside her heart
no matter where life would eventually take them.
    “ Yes, unfortunately that’s true,” she
said softly, flipping through the old photo album.
    That was an understatement. Fact of the
matter was, she’d been sexually fantasizing about her handsome,
younger brother for months now, ever since that evening when she
marched down into the basement where Dad had sent Aidan after he
acted like an impossible asshole toward Helmut.
    Over the years, more children were
added to the van Nuys’ growing brood, but none were as young, or as special
to her, as Aidan. He had five and a half months on her when she
first arrived at Mom and Dad’s home as a six-month young baby.
Aidan and she were literally the oldest van Nuys children, but also
the youngest when they were adopted.
    It was inevitable that a special bond would
grow between them.
    “ It most certainly did,” she said as
she flipped another album page. “And that’s the