Prologue
1971 Words
"Do you have everything? Socks? Warm underthings?" Callie's brows crinkled in concern as she watched her two oldest sons packing up their SUV prior to their journey down the winding roads of Interstate 50.
"Mom, we don't need warm underthings yet," Alex said with a smile.
"Yeah, unless you want us to sweat our balls off," his twin Jamison snickered.
"If you had any balls to speak of," their sister Emily muttered as she helped with the last of the bags that were going into the already packed tight trunk of the Highlander. She had had to postpone a trip to the mall to see her two older siblings off to college and was exceedingly grumpy because of it.
"Shut it, Emmy-poo" Alex snapped at her.
"Don't call me that you wanker," she spat out. Yes, there would be no love lost between her older brothers and herself. They had always fought like cats and dogs. Mainly because they were so similar personality wise.
"I'll call you anything I like you little-" Alex started only to be interrupted by one of his fathers.
"Shut it both of you- Christ!" Emmett came out of the front door of the house when he heard the melodious sounds of his children bickering. Since they were old enough to talk, his oldest sons fought like cats and dogs with his only daughter.
"Ahhhhh, do you feel the love, Stef?" Caysen asked his 13 year old twin brother.
"It's literally wafting over me like a cool summer breeze," Stefan replied with a smirk.
"Dear sweet Jesus," Callie said with a shake of her head. All of her offspring had inherited their fathers' sarcasm until the house was practically exploding in snarky comments.
Ethan came out from the garage which they had recently added to the home.
"What's all the noise out here?" he asked with a frown. "Last day you'll see each other before University and you all can't get along?" He shook his head at his children.
Callie looked over her family unit. Alex and Jamison had been her first born twin sons. They were named in honor or their Aunt Alexandra, one of her closest friends who now lived in Las Vegas and Jamie who was best friends with her husbands.
Yes- husbands. Though not on paper of course.
On paper she was Mrs. Ethan Reznick, though she considered his twin Emmett just as much a spouse to her as his brother. She wore two wedding rings and two engagement rings- though on different hands. It didn't matter to her though. What mattered was a healthy, loving home and her five wonderful- albeit bratty at this moment- children.
Her oldest sons favored her in almost every way. They had her brownish red hair and purplish-blue eye color, though their build was definitely more on their father's side. They were tall at six foot two inches each, give or take a few millimeters difference between them.
Emily was her only girl whom she had named after her long deceased mother. Though she donned the same brownish- red hair as her older siblings, her eyes were a deep blue like her fathers and she held a more petite stature at only five foot three inches. If it weren't for the eyes, she would have looked like Callie at the age of sixteen.
Her troublesome youngest pair of twins were Stefan and Caysen. Stefan she had named in honor of her father who was now retired and still living next door to her odd family unit. Caysen's namesake was Ethan and Emmett's deceased father and the two were the spitting image of Emmett and Ethan at thirteen years of age- blonde and blue eyed.
The squabbling between the three older siblings was cut off as they grumbled from their places on the front lawn. Jamison, who preferred to go by Jay most of the time, closed the hatch of the car after the last box was snugged in and taking up the last of the available space in the vehicle.
"Kiss your mother goodbye before she makes good on her promise to lock you in your rooms until you're thirty," Emmett told his children.
"I was kidding!" Callie called out, but her face looking dubious.
"Sure you were, baby," Ethan walked up to his wife and gave her a long, comforting kiss.
"Christ, my eyes!" Emily cried putting her hands over her face.
"Keep your nastiness in the house you old farts!" Alex called looking horrified. He hated when his parents were getting intimate, though he had never spied them doing anything other than kissing. Thank the Lord.
"Isn't Jenna going to come see you off?" Callie asked Alex.
"We broke up, Mom." he said in a bored tone.
"When?"
"Like a month ago," Alex said. "She's too far away. I want to focus on school, not wondering whether or not she's getting hit on at a frat party while at Arizona State. It's a party school."
"That's a shame," Callie said. "I rather liked that girl."
"So will half of Arizona State," Jay mumbled. Alex smacked his head. "Ow, you turd."
Ethan looked at both his sons, thinking.
"Maybe it was a bad idea to have you two share a dorm room at State," he said looking between the two as they scowled at each other.
"We'll be fine," Jay replied. "The big skid mark loves me too much to kill me."
"Bite me," his twin replied.
"Don't include me in your weird fetishes," Jay stated with a smirk.
"I'm so not going to miss the charming rapport you two have," Emily said sardonically. "Can I have Alex's old room? Once it's been fumigated that is?"
"Why would you want my old room? I still legally reside here ya know," Alex stated.
"It has a better view of the mountains," she replied.
"You mean a better view of neighbor's son ya perv!" Jay retorted.
Emily flushed crimson at the statement. "Ew- his son is way too old for me. He's practically ancient."
"He's only twenty four, Emmy," stated Caysen.
"Yeah, if that's ancient to you- what are Mom and Dad? Fossils?" Stefan joked.
"I hate you all," Emily muttered as she shook her head.
"Enough!" Emmett stated calling off World War III South Lake Tahoe style. "Say goodbye to your brothers so they can get down the mountain before dark."
After a long goodbye, made even longer when Callie started to weep, the twins hopped into the black Highlander and started down the mountain towards the west. They had decided to split the journey between the two of them. When they made it down the hill to Sacramento, they would switch places after a later lunch / early dinner.
******
Pulling into the dormitories at San Francisco State University, the boys shut down the car and headed into the building. Many students and parents were busy moving into the Towers at Centennial Square Apartments so the twins went relatively unnoticed by the other people scuttling boxes and bags into the building. They were used to gawking as people took in the tall mirror images.
Upon entry into the building, the two of them saw a queue to the main desk where they would retrieve their keys and room assignments. It took them a full twenty minutes to make it up to the front of the line and grab the necessities. Once that was done, they headed back out to the car in order to grab several boxes to take up to the dorm apartment with them.
The boys had opted for a one bedroom that had two twin sized beds and a full living room and kitchen. They weren't great chefs, but both knew the basics. Something their mother had taught them. If their fathers had tried to teach kitchen wizardry, they would most likely be left without a place to lay their heads at the end of the day. Ethan and Emmett were still helpless fools with a frying pan and spatula and Callie had never allowed them to cook anything more involved than toast or tea for fear of a fire or explosion.
They brought their belongings up slowly, nodding to some of the other students and parents as they went. Alex decided to take the car to its allotted parking space in the UCSF parking garage a block away and they planned to unpack afterwards.
The building was more of an apartment set up which had felt a little more homey than the antiseptic dorm lay out of Mary Park and Mary Ward halls. It was a little more expensive, but the boys had gotten several grants that would cover most of their tuition and boarding expenses.
Though their parents ran a successful business, they weren't yet crapping out money by the fistful and they were always careful with their finances. They had five children to put through college after all.
When Alex made it back to their dorm apartment- room 1406- he was surprised to hear talking coming from through the walls of the apartment into the living area.
"Hello?" he called out to his brother while poking his head through the door to their bedroom.
Inside, his twin was standing, chatting with a tall boy with short blond hair. He looked athletic and exuded confidence even from behind.
"Hey, Alex- this is Erik," Jay told him as he opened another box of his belongings. "He's in the room over from us in 1405. He has a one bedroom as well."
"Nice to meetcha," the boy told him with a firm handshake. "My roommate should be along soon. He's just finishing unpacking his s**t. His name's Kenneth."
"It'll be a sausage fest in here pretty soon," Alex pondered.
"Don't I know it," Erik said with a grin. "Kenneth will be in seventh heaven. He's gay, so don't wig on him if he tries to flirt with ya."
"We're a pretty open-minded duo," stated Jay with a lopsided grin. Open-minded was an understatement. How man people could claim that they had two fathers?
"Good to know," Erik said with a shrug. "As long as his swooning over Channing Tatum doesn't get you eeked out, you'll do just fine. Bad enough he already had posters of the dude all over his side of the bedroom. It was the first things he set up aside from his laptop."
"So stick a bunch of posters of naked chicks on your side," Alex advised. "Fair's fair."
"Good idea," Erik said and his face widened with a grin. "It'll be sure to turn his stomach. Nice guy- I just love messing with him already. He's so easily wound up."
"Prankster?" Jay asked.
"Don't you know it," Erik agreed with a nod and wicked gleam to his eye.
"Who's a prankster?" Another voice came filtering in through the door.
"Kenneth," Erik stated, gesturing to the twins. "This is Alex and Jay. Try to figure out which one's which."
"Do I have to?" he asked with a smirk. "I'd love to cuddle up in a nice twin sandwich and these two pieces of man meat are just the thing-"
"Knock it off before you scare them back home ya queen," Erik said, though there was no bite behind the remark.
"You wound me, dear roomie." Kenneth put a hand flat against his heart in mock shock. "But honestly, I am not some flaming 'mo looking to get into every man's jockeys. Just Channing Tatum's." He added with a revefent sigh.
Erik rolled his eyes at his friend but kept his lips tilted in a smile.
"We should all order out together," Jay stated as he moved onto a new box. "Have a nice chat and get to know each other. That way when all the chicks are in my room getting owned, Kenneth here can come over and keep you company for a bit- well, several hours."
"No exceptions here," Kenneth said looking over at the twins with a devilish grin.
"Christ, I'm never gonna get laid this semester," Erik groaned as he threw his hands up in the air.
- Writer
