Chapter 14: I Dream of Justine (Or Not)

Justine finally makes a move on the Sterling twins, taking them for a night on the town.

Following the large, backyard dinner-party, it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that the Simmons and Sterling families were finally on good terms and had sorted out each other's problems. Rosemary had regained her parents' trust, while Junior had finally earned their blessing. Primrose would no longer have to be kept in the dark about half of her heritage, even though she was still too young to process anything that was going on. Zeke had managed to lay his inner demons to rest, and with his parents' permission under his belt, he was finally poised to head out for Harvard once summer came to a close. Finally, Mark and Katrina were able to prove to Paul and Lorraine that they were anything but crooks, also teaching them a lesson about jumping to conclusions with strangers.

However, there was still one small predicament among the group that had yet to be resolved. Justine's crush on Kendra and Kendall was still as strong as ever, and after all these months, she still hadn't made a single move on them. Some of her actions gave a few hints, but they didn't seem to pick up on them. Tired of being a coward and knowing that time was running out, Justine decided it was finally time to break the ice, this time without her twin brother tagging along for the ride.

A little over a week after the half Southern, half Italian feast, Justine made her way through the living room at Junior's house, where she found her mother conversing with Lorraine over more of that lemonade recipe from the other day. All but tuned out of the contentious baseball game being played on the TV before them.

"Y'know that Italian ice cream you made wasn't too shabby," Lorraine commented. "Dare I say, even better than the American version."

"Speak for yourself. If it weren't for tradition, I'd never make gelato," Katrina replied, switching to an Italian accent whenever she pronounced a word from that language. "I honestly prefer American ice-cream, but my sister loves the Italian kind. Hell, the vast majority of our fights back when we was kids were about what type a'dessert we'd have."

"Hey guys, you know where Kendra and Kendall are?" Justine interjected.

"Check one a'the spare bedrooms." Katrina pointed down the hallway.

"I think it's the one near the end, with the big window in it," Lorraine added. "Seems just like them to prefer more natural light."

"Okay, thanks." Justine hurried down the hall.

"Huh, wonder what that was all about." Lorraine took another sip of lemonade.

"Ain't it obvious, Lorraine? My little girl's in love!" Katrina cooed. "Surprised ya' never caught onto it since ya' got here. I mean, if there's one thing ya' oughta' know about my daughter, she ain't subtle in the slightest... just like her ma."

"Ah, okay. Well, let's hope my daughters let her down gently," Lorraine spoke a bit more solemnly.

---

After knocking on the door, Justine was granted entry into the sunlit guest room. She found the Sterling twins sitting up straight on the bed, Kendra looking down at her phone while Kendall finished weaving her sandy hair into a single braid, reducing its length so it nearly fell to her knees. The latter's lustrous hair had already been styled in an identical fashion. Both twins still wore their feathered earrings from before, presumably their favorite, constantly worn accessory, akin to Paul's hat, Zeke's headband, or Rosemary and Lorraine's bandanas.

"Uh... hey, you two," Justine spoke shyly, trying hard to control her swooning.

"What's up?" the twins replied in unison.

"Yeah, so uh, the weather's supposed to be nice tonight, and um... I uh... I was thinking we could maybe... go out, and enjoy the evening together?" Justine continued. "J-Just us girls...?"

"Okay, sounds fun," Kendra spoke neutrally.

"We're in," Kendall added.

"Okay, well uh... I'll... I'll see you later..." Justine stammered, cheeks flushed.

"At around six-thirty?" Kendra suggested.

"Y-Yeah, yeah, we'll do that," Justine replied with a wave, quickly slipping out of the room and shutting the door.

She couldn't help but stand against the wall to the side, clenching her fists in excitement and trying hard to suppress her squeals. So consumed in her own excitement that she failed to notice Junior walking by with baby in hand.

"Remember, keep your head out of the clouds," he said with a smirk.

A large part of Justine wanted to walk over and punch her brother right in his smug kisser, but the rest of her managed to control that urge. Good thing too, since that would run the risk of hurting her niece. No matter how much he goaded her, she just couldn't wait to go on her date with not one, but two women, and hopefully form a legitimate connection. Sure, she'd still have to choose which twin to start a relationship with, but she knew she'd be cool with either one.

---

Hurrying back to her room, Justine decided to kill some time by picking out tonight's outfit ahead of time, going for something that would not only be stylish to her, but also to attract the eyes of both Kendra and Kendall. After several inner debates, she settled on a sheer, dandelion-yellow bodysuit with a single long sleeve and a turtleneck collar, accompanied by a black leather mini-skirt and thigh-high, high-heeled boots to match. She decided to put her hair up into a beehive, like her mother often did, and wear a pear-yellow T-shirt bra under her top. Seeing how her period had started yesterday, she would've normally worn one in a slightly bigger size, but she wore her normal one instead so she could draw more attention to her upper-body. For the longest time, Justine had been all but losing her mind around the Sterling twins, so now she figured it was time to dress a bit more lasciviously than usual for this occasion. Payback time at last.

Donning her complete outfit, she met the two outside by 6:30pm, and almost keeled over at the sight of what they had on. Both Kendra and Kendall sported high-heels that made them tower over Justine even more, their rangy frames clothed in long Bohemian skirts and snug, short-sleeved crop-tops; the latter possessed Mandarin collars and gaping, mesh-covered holes that exposed the top half of their busts. Like always, they had zero makeup on, but to Justine, that was why they were so beautiful.

"Wow, you two look nice," she commented.

"Thank you." Kendall curtsied a bit.

"Ready to get going?" Kendra asked.

"Ready when you two are." Justine nodded with a thumbs up.

The trio proceeded to walk into town, rather slowly since they were all wearing heels. Their first stop was at a local Italian joint called Vicciotelli's, which happened to be owned by Katrina, following her father's passing… though not without her older sister claiming some of its stock. Justine was able to use her status as the wealthiest in town to get them past the line and seated at her family's reserved table in no time flat.

"So this place used to only serve authentic Neapolitan pizza, but as of recently they also serve St. Louis, Brooklyn, and Chicago style," Justine explained.

"Heh, I can hear your mom now when she sees the deep-dish," Kendra chuckled.

"Look at how they massacred my boy!" Kendall quipped.

"Oh God, that impression is too perfect!" Justine laughed out loud. "But no, it was actually her idea. Evidently, she prefers the way Americans do pizza."

"Makes sense, though I will say I vastly prefer the way Italians do the crust, where it's all charred and bubbly," Kendra explained. "If I could get that crust, mixed with Brooklyn's slice-size, all the while topped with provel like they do in St. Louis..."

"And they'd also put the sauce on top of the cheese, like in Chicago," Kendra added.

"Yeah, possibly..."

"Say, am I the only one who despises how most pizza places do sausage? It looks like what you'd find cleaning a guinea-pig's cage," Justine interjected with a wince.

After some discussion and a few glasses of grappa, the three girls decided to share an extra-large St. Louis style pizza topped with sun-dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, pineapple, and arugula. Justine would've normally ordered a meat-lovers pizza, but she had to respect the fact that today was one of the twins' vegetarian days. Didn't stop them from putting anchovies on the pizza, however, as Kendra and Kendall had finally decided it could be an exception to their self-imposed rule.

"So. How do ya' like them pineapples?" Justine chuckled.

"This is so amazing!" Kendra sensually moaned in delight, a string of cheese hanging from her mouth.

"Agreed!" Kendall added, unintentionally turning Justine on by licking the sauce off her lips.

---

Throughout the meal, Justine enjoyed learning more insight into the minds of her love-interests and discovering just how much they had in common. She also mentally cursed herself for going commando that night, simply because of how much they aroused her. Under any other circumstances, she would've chosen to stay at Vicciotelli's for dessert, but she instead chose to bring the twins to the local ice cream shop that had been mentioned earlier. Walking home, the three girls continued to chat, each with a frozen treat in hand; clarified butter pecan in a churro cone for Justine, pomegranate sorbet in a cup for Kendra, and cinnamon-peanut-butter in a bacon-chocolate cone for Kendall; the latter treat was drizzled in a browned-butter and brown sugar caramel.

"And I was like, 'so you mean to tell me I had more rights as a zygote than as a fully-grown woman? F**k right off'," Kendra groaned, eliciting laughter from the other two.

"Cracks me up every time," Kendall laughed.

"Say, tonight was a lot of fun," Justine commented with a smile. "How'd you two like the date?"

"...what?" the twins asked in unison.

"Oh f**k..." Justine whispered as she slapped a hand over her mouth, unable to believe she'd just blurted that out.

"Did you just call tonight a date?" Kendra raised a dirty blonde eyebrow.

"Yeah, cause I honestly didn't even get that vibe," Kendall added. "I mean after all, we both like guys."

That did it. All it took was one small moment to sour the whole night for Justine. She'd fallen so hard for both Kendra and Kendall the moment she laid eyes on them, and thanks to her carelessness and letting her hopes get too high, she just had to be let down so hard tonight. For what felt like the hundredth time throughout her life. Would she ever find true love? Or find something even remotely close to what she once had with Mandy? So many thoughts shot through her head at a mile a minute, but she pushed them aside for the sake of maintaining her composure.

"Oh, uh, must've been a poor choice of words. My bad," Justine said at last, rubbing the back of her head. "See I'm just so used to going out on dates with other girls, and my mouth just goes on autopilot, y'know?"

"Okay, well we had fun too," Kendra replied. "Right, sis?"

"Yep." Kendall nodded. "Welp, it's getting pretty late. See you in the morning, bestie."

Justine said nothing as she watched them enter the house before her, frozen in place as she processed everything that just happened. It took about five minutes for her to follow them into the door, looking beyond emotionless as she slowly walked through the mansion and into her guest suite, not shedding a single tear until she fell flat onto the bed.