This story is a complete fantasy, but I hope you enjoy it. Please comment and vote. Thank you.
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The contrast between me and my sister Melanie could not have been more pronounced. She's two and a half years older than I am, and for as long as I could remember, she had been the apple of everyone's eye. It helped that she was tall and slim, pretty and clever, good at school, successful at sports, and popular with other kids. Unlike me.
I was your classic late developer. Until I was about 14, I was small and weedy, anywhere between three and six inches shorter than my peer group, thin and pallid. Spotty as well. And where Mel had luxuriantly thick dark hair, I had a sparse gingery pelt that always looked untidy: I shaved my head from the age of 16, which helped a bit.
Maybe it was because of my physical shortcomings, but I was also crap at school, and regularly got poor marks and bad reports. It was as if the gods had conspired to give Mel everything that I lacked - and then some.
It didn't help that we went to the same school, and maybe it was because of this that Mel bullied me mercilessly. Her favourite insult was when she called me "Little Davie - The runt of the litter" and, in front of her many friends, would announce that I wasn't really her brother, and that I was adopted. Much to everyone's amusement.
I knew it wasn't true because I had seen my birth certificate, and hers, and we were both born to the same parents. But it still hurt, especially as her friends may have thought it was true, and because I had no-one to back me up.
Our father had died in an industrial accident when I was five and Mel was nearly eight. Our mother was awarded substantial damages, part of which she used to pay for our education - hence Mel and me being at the same private school.
I couldn't really remember dad, but according to my mother he was tall and tough, a former soldier and rugby player, and was very popular with everyone who knew him. She said this in a slightly wistful way when looking at me... another contrast.
When I was 14, things got even worse between me and Mel, if that were possible. It didn't particularly bother me, and I'm not going to talk about it here -- just use your imagination. But Mel clearly just forgot what she'd done, and that added to the hurt.
In fact, her contempt when she saw me became even pronounced, and she took to ignoring me completely. Although we lived in the same house, we might as well have been living in different cities. Different countries even. Sadly, even with my limited knowledge of these things, I could see that Mel was turning from a girl to a beautiful young woman, whereas I seemed to be stuck in perpetual childhood. Peter Pan without the ability to fly.
She sailed through her GCSEs, left our school and went to a nearby sixth-form college to do her A-Levels, which meant I saw her even less. After a time, she would be studiously polite when we met, but refused point-blank to indulge in any conversation. I thought "Fuck it, I don't care" but I did care, and it made me feel desperately sad.
Meantime I put in a growth spurt, and between my 14th and 16th birthdays I grew seven inches taller and 50 pounds heavier. I had a ravenous appetite to go with it, but I ate well, thanks to my mother. I also became quite good at some sports, played rugby for my school and won a couple of cups in local swimming competitions. These went on the sideboard with Mel's dozen or so larger trophies won in county tennis championships. As you might have expected.
In due course, I got a decent crop of GCSEs - not as good as Mel's of course - and went to the same sixth-form college, although she had left by then. Around the time I started my A-Levels, she came back from a gap year working in Nepal, although being away in a Buddhist community had not taught her much about family affection and kindness to others. When she got back, I asked if she had had a good time, and she simply said "Yeah, OK," and carried on talking to my mother.
Mind you, while she had been away she had become absolutely stunning to look at. She had grown her naturally wavy, rich dark hair, and with her beautiful bone structure she looked like a model. Her figure had developed as well, filling out in all the right places, and she looked gorgeous. Still a miserable fucker though.
Anyway, three weeks later she went off to Cambridge on a scholarship to read for a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, although she could just as easily have done modern languages. There was already talk of her joining the diplomatic service or the Cabinet Office when she got her (almost inevitable) First.
While she was at Cambridge, I finished my A-Levels and before I went to university (no, not Cambridge: Manchester, reading Maths and Computer Science if you must know) I did a gap year working for Microsoft in Germany. That Christmas, I came back home for a few days, and Mel was there with her boyfriend, Doug, a big Scottish guy whom she'd met in her first year at Cambridge.
I had met him a couple of times, and he seemed like a decent bloke, and he was clearly another high achiever. Good with the chat, as well. He was always charming to my mother and appeared genuinely interested in me and my future career. Mel, of course, spent as little time as she could in the same room as me.
Before they left to spend New Year with Doug's parents, he caught me and Mum on our own, said he wanted to ask Mel to marry him and asked for our blessing. Mum burst into tears of delight, while I simply said, "Welcome to the family" and shook his hand. Part of me felt a sense of loss, which is strange because, if you think about it, I'd lost Mel years before.
The following October I went off to university. I had a great time at Manchester - brilliant city, great university - with the only slight downer coming during my second year, when Mel got married, and out of the blue she sent me an email asking if I would give her away. She said she had wanted our mother to be the person who did it, but Mum had said it had to be a man. Mel said that Mum had also ruled out our Uncle Charlie, threatening that unless I was asked, she would not to go to the wedding at all. Grudging isn't the word for it.
I mean, I didn't want to give her away -- in truth, I didn't actually want to go to the wedding - and I wished Mum had kept her nose out of it. I felt like writing back to Mel and telling her the truth, because it was clear she didn't want me anywhere near her "special day". But I couldn't do that to Mum and, you know, it gave me perverse pleasure to accept the invitation, because I knew it would piss Mel off. Especially as I intended to do the job perfectly.