Author's note;
Although this chapter will contain one more trip into the past; to the day following Mark and Megan's "Date", it begins back in the present.
Now because it has been awhile since we were in the present (Chapter 10) Here is a brief synopsis of what has gone on before.
Chapter's 1-3 Megan Hanson a successful artist from Chicago, is having a difficult time; strung out from long hours to make a deadline, battling an attack of insomnia, and also depressed over the end of yet another failed attempt at love Megan returns home to Providence to visit her brother, Mark Phillips, a high profile attorney and notorious lady killer. Megan and Mark are very close; in addition to being brother and sister, they are each other's best friends and have also been "Siblings with Benefits" for close to two decades. These 3 chapters cover Megan's "homecoming"
Chapter's 4-7- As the two relax on Mark's deck, Mark tells the story of how Megan took his virginity and the details of their first wild weekend together.
Chapter's 8-10 After Megan receives an offer to do some work for a wealthy client and finds out she will have to cut her visit short Mark surprises her by rather than continuing their usual hardcore sex games, taking her into his bedroom and after making love to her professes his love for her. Megan, unsure if he is serious or just trying to make her feel good, acts as if she were not taking it seriously and leaves him broken hearted. After a violent sexual encounter Megan decides they need a couple of days apart and goes to visit her parents where she finds her old journal and begins reading it.
Chapter's 11-22 All cover a six month period of time that shows the ups and downs of their bizarre relationship as well as Megan's growing issues with drugs and alcohol and Mark's rage issues.
Chapter 23-This chapter begins where ten left off with Megan in her old bedroom at her parents' house.
*
I looked up from the journal with my eyes burning and my head racing. Putting the book upside down on the bed so it would stay open, I picked up my blackberry and saw that it was three am; I had been reading for close to four hours. Dropping the phone I rubbed at my eyes trying to stop them from stinging. I definitely had a better chance of reducing the discomfort there than I did with slowing down my mind which was now in overdrive.
When I had first entered my old bedroom and lied down I'd had the feeling that my brother and I had come full circle; now after reading the journal that thought was driven home even harder. The amazing thing was that I hadn't remembered that night at all. I am well aware that my mind has quite mercifully blocked out quite a few things from my "lost decade" as I commonly refer to the time period that my addiction held sway over me.
What I hadn't realized however was that, apparently, my mind had decided to "forget" things that happened even before that. Reading the journal had brought back those painful memories, of how needy, and selfish I had been in the months that had led up to that night in my brother's apartment where I had, using some sort of twisted logic, decided to cut my brother loose from his needy anchor of a sister.
It had also hurt to recall how I had betrayed my brother and ruined his chances with Krissy. Through my twelve step program I had been taught to not play the "what if" game, that it would only lead to feelings of remorse and guilt, feelings that in the past always had led me back into darkness. Tonight however I couldn't help it. Couldn't help but wonder how different Mark's and my lives could have been.
What if Mark had gotten back together with Krissy? Would sweet little Krissy have been enough to contain Mark's own growing darkness? Odds are probably not; even before I had gotten Mark into that fight with Jack he and Krissy had been on the way out. Mark was becoming cockier, flirting with any girl who looked his way, and had also been trying to push Krissy into the rough sex that he had been enjoying with his big sister.
Of course the biggest question flooding my mind was what if I had chosen differently on that amazing night? What if, instead of turning Mark's special night into another S&M session, I had given in and let my brother love me the way he had wanted to? Mark would have loved me that night the way he had this past Saturday night, when once again just to show how consistent I was, I threw it away again. This time however things were much more serious.
Back then Mark had been confused, not quite sure what was going on, just following my lead. On the other hand this past Saturday it was pretty obvious that my brother had known exactly what he wanted, and to make it even worse, this time I let him go through with making love to me, before breaking his heart. To think I had been complaining that night that no one had ever made love to me before and I could have had it almost twenty years ago when...
I stopped and cocked my head and once again, like earlier today, I had the feeling that I had experienced that before, but couldn't quite picture it. This time, instead of letting the thought drift away, I focused on it; and had an image of my brother over me, moving slowly and gently, a look of love in his eyes, that same look that I had just read about. I frowned as the image slipped away, when had it been? Mark hadn't appeared to be that young, yet it certainly hadn't been recently.