Second story, hope to make it a series. Please give feedback and notes.
*****
Caroline had been packing for about two hours—her clothes were piled up around her like towers, each neatly stacked and organized to her exact specifications. Her family was planning a vacation to the Outer Banks where they would spend four weeks at their grandparent's beach house. She had washed and folded up a few dozen pairs of shirts and shorts, and picked out a handful of her favorite sundresses. She was almost done packing when someone banged loudly on her bedroom door, making her jump.
It was her younger brother who was peeking around the door, grinning at her. "You ready?" Brad asked, his face turned up into a wolfish smile. He had finished throwing his collection of college t-shirts and gym shorts into a duffle bag hours ago and was always amused that his older sister took so long packing and making sure she had everything. Caroline had always been organized, always did her homework ahead of time, always made lists and checked them twice. Brad was the complete opposite of her, at least when it came to that.
In physical looks, Caroline and Brad were nearly twins despite the year and two months between them. Brad was tall and stocky, full of muscles that were earned on the high school's football field, and had dark blond hair and bright blue eyes that matched Caroline. Caroline was barely five-foot, slightly curvy with hair that was lighter shade of blond and went all the down to the middle of her back. She had been a cheerleader for her four years of high school and it still showed.
Brad had entered her bedroom and was looking around at his sister's stacks of clothing with amusement. "Do you have your outfits planned out in advance as well?" he teased his sister as he sat on her bed.
Caroline frowned at her brother and scooped up a stack of t-shirts that he was about to knock over and put them into her bright pink duffle bag. "Can you go away?" she asked, rolling her eyes at her little brother.
"Sure," Brad said, standing up and stretching so that his shirt rode up and revealed his flat, muscled stomach. "Mom and Dad want to talk to you in the living room in a minute. They sent me to get you."
Caroline looked at her brother, who was still stretching his arms behind his head as he watched her pack her bag. "What about?" she grumbled, frustrated that she couldn't finish putting her clothes away. Brad shrugged and disappeared out of her room without further explanation.
Caroline put away two more stacks of clothing, neatly organizing them into her two suitcases before she walked down the hallway to the living room. Brad hadn't been entirely truthful, she realized once she got to the living room, her entire family was sitting there waiting for her patiently. Her Mom and Dad were perched on the loveseat and her grandpa was in his old smoking chair, puffing away on a cigarette. Her little sister Karen was reading a Junie B. Jones book with her feet kicked up on the coffee table and Brad was throwing himself into the old leather couch across from her parents. There was only the red couch next to Karen and Caroline sat primly against the arm rest and waited patiently for her parents to start talking.
"Okay," her Mom said clapping her hands together. "I know we planned on leaving tomorrow and driving down to the Outer Banks, but Dad had something come up at work and he has to stay an extra few days. I don't want this to affect everyone else and we don't want to lose the rental, so we made a decision."
Caroline glanced at Brad, who actually looked worried that they were going to cancel the trip. It was the last family vacation before Brad started his freshman year at UVA and she went back to JMU for her second year of college, which made it a big deal. Caroline knew her parents would never cancel this trip, not if they could help it.
"So what's the decision?" Brad asked, ignoring his phone as it beeped a few times in his pocket.
"You and Caroline are going to drive down together and get the beach house ready. Dad and I will come as soon as we can with Karen and Grandpa, but it'll take us a few days before we can get there," Mom informed everyone, looking around and checking reactions. Karen didn't seem to mind, she was too engulfed in her book and Grandpa shrugged and kept smoking his cigarette and stinking the house up. Dad looked apologetic, but Caroline was pissed.
"So I'm driving?" she asked. She had planned on driving anyways, the Outer Banks were only about five or six hours away from where they lived and she liked having her car so she could do what she pleased. She just didn't like the idea of driving with Brad, who was as annoying as a little brother could be.
"We can take turns," Brad corrected his sister. He was excited about the trip and pretty excited to spend time with Caroline. She had always ignored him and acted hoity-toity in his presence at school and at home, but she'd be stuck with him for a few hours at least in the car and then more time at the beach house. She'd have to spend time with him.
"I'm gonna give you guys the credit card and enough cash to get there and settled," Mom said. She handed the card and a wad of money to Caroline, who she knew would be more responsible with it than Brad.
"I need to finish packing," Caroline huffed and stood up, returning to her room. Grandpa and Karen settled into a quiet routine of smoking and reading, talking every now and then as the evening turned into the nighttime. Brad texted on his phone with a few friends, reminding them he'd be out of town for a few weeks so they shouldn't hit him up, while his parents' started discussing their own travel plans.
Brad finally decided he should talk to his sister again and see what time she wanted to leave tomorrow. He knocked on her bedroom door and when she didn't answer, he flung the door open wide and started to say, "Hey Caroline what time should we go?" before he realized she was standing there in just a bra and a robe that was falling off her shoulder.
"What?" she whipped around to look at her door and turned bright red when she saw him standing there, his mouth open staring at her. She readjusted her robe, but not enough to cover the white lace of her bra and the tanned cleavage that was spilling out of her blue terry cloth robe.
"I was just about to—" Brad felt his skin turn as dark red as his sisters and ducked his head, trying to not look like he was staring at his sister. She looked great, sexy even, and he could feel his body start to react to her lack of clothing.
"I was going to shower," Caroline explained, motioning at her robe. He glanced up and noticed that some of her robe had fallen off her shoulder again, revealing a constellation of freckles and most of her left breast which was popping out of her bra. For such a diminutive lady, she had a good size rack: round, tanned globes with dark nipples that were already standing at attention. She was thin too, which gave her a curvy and sweet look. Brad had been wondering how many bikinis she had packed, but had been too busy to ask her that earlier. Now it was all he could think about, the prospect of seeing her with even less clothes in just a few days at the beach.
"What time are we leaving tomorrow?" Brad choked out, trying to look at his sister's pretty face.
