Jerry had found it highly hilarious how Jessie and Kay managed to fool Jimmy and Kyle by pretending the other had agreed with their little shopping escapade. It took his two brothers a few hours to figure it out, but they ended up admitting defeat. As they should. Jessie and Kay were not to be messed with when they wanted something.

But as the evening rolled over them and they got ready for the little party, Jerry wasn't so sure anymore. Kay's blue dress was gorgeous and looked very well on her. It wasn't too short or too plunging, but the way she looked, her hair pinned up, her posture confident an alluring, made him realize he'd have a lot of work to do tonight.

"What's wrong, Jerry?" she asked innocently. "Does it look bad?"

"Of course it doesn't," Jimmy answered for him. "It looks great. Kyle will love it."

And that was what Jerry was afraid of. That and what Jessie would be wearing.

Kay just smiled in delight and bounced to the door and out in the hall. Jerry and Jimmy followed to meet the others. Jessie wore a plaid white skirt with pockets, a red blouse with a plunging neckline and platform sandals, looking more beautiful than she should.

Jerry elbowed his twin in the ribs before he could react, but his eyes were on Kyle. And even if his older brother just smiled at his girlfriend and reached out his hand for her to take it, Jerry caught it. He saw the momentarily glint in Kyle's eyes, the brief spell of lust. He had a lot of work to do tonight.

As they boarded the bus and headed for this aqua club, Jerry kept pondering on how to approach the problem. He couldn't just start lecturing them out of the blue, and he had a feeling words wouldn't do it this time. He had to be subtle, create an atmosphere of comfortable companionship rather than romance. It shouldn't be too hard to do. Most summer school students were groups of friends.

Once they reached the club, he relaxed even more. It was nothing but a simple, rather small two story building with a spacey terrace, placed on the edge a rocky beach. The party was in full swing, but there were no dim lights, no raving music or sweaty bodies mashing together in hypnotic dancing.

They took a table at the edge of the terrace with a view of the sea and the full moon. The breeze was pleasant and Jerry actually found he was enjoying himself. Kyle and Jimmy disappeared in the crowd to get some food while the rest of them leaned against the banister and admired the view.

"What a lovely night," Jessie said. "Thanks for agreeing with this, Sam."

Sam only grumbled as an answer and Jerry turned to him, confused.

"What's going on?" he asked warily.

Sam sighed, shook his head and turned away from the sea. "I miss Christine," he mumbled.

"Really?" Kay asked in disbelief.

"Didn't until right this minute," Sam said. "Stupid moon."

Jerry laughed and the girls joined in. Even Sam grinned weakly. But a tight knot formed in Jerry's stomach at the thought of Tina. She'd been away for the past day so he hadn't gotten to talk to her today. Because unbeknown to the rest of the group, whenever he called home, he called her right after. They only discussed simple things, like what they'd done that day, how horrible the heat in Malta was, how Chicago had been rainy for the past days. But one lone day without hearing her voice, and he felt strangely hollow.

Fortunately, Kyle and Jimmy's return pulled him from his pool of melancholy. The smell of roast beef almost turned his stomach over.

"What is that?"

"Burgers and fries that don't seem as greasy as the ones from campus," Jimmy declared victoriously.

"Seem is right," Sam muttered and Jerry had to agree.

Kay eyed the plate with a disgusted air and stood. "I'd rather dance."

"Me too," Jessie said.

"Be our guests," Kyle said, his mouth already filled with fries.

Jerry chuckled as Kay gave them the stink eye and headed off with Jessie. Things were really going great so far.

"You really don't want to dance with her?" Sam asked, leaning his back against the banister.

Kyle just narrowed his eyes at him before he returned to watching Kay. Jerry ignored the sense of unease that one look set off, and tried eating something, too, mainly because he knew that in terms of food, India was worse. He'd have to fill up on the plane.

"This is all so bouncy and last decade," Jimmy said, though he was actually tapping his foot to the music. "Don't they have something more... danceable?"

Sam scrunched his face in pain and Jimmy frowned too for some reason.

"We're here to relax," Kyle said with a shrug. "Not eat up all our energy dancing."

Jimmy shoved his shoulder. "You're so transparent."

Jerry squinted at his brothers, but he couldn't tell what they were talking about.

"Tell me you're not the least bit tempted," Jimmy continued the senseless discussion.

"Least bit? I can handle this just fine. I'm not really in the disco mood."

Jerry pursed his lips, wishing he could understand what they meant. Or maybe he really didn't want to know. But he also suddenly wished the music would switch to something no one could dance to.

And in a matter of seconds, it felt like the DJ read his mind. The disco sound faded and the hard chords of a tango broke through the night. The crowd jeered and most of them stepped away from the dance floor while some started to move theatrically.

Jessie sighed and made her way back to them. Kay did not. She just fixed Kyle with an intense gaze. Jerry held in a laugh. This was so funny, Kay expecting Kyle to come to her and-The rest of his thought screeched to a halt. His eyes widened as Kyle dropped his plate and headed for Kay, his walk confident. She reached out her hand, he took it, and they were off, dancing a perfectly correct tango.

"Wow," Sam whispered next to him.

Jerry shook his head, trying to wrap his mind around this bizarre occurrence.

"Am I the only one who finds this incredibly surprising?" Jimmy asked.

Sam whispered a no and Jerry shook his head, unable to take his eyes off the dancing couple. The other dancers moved out of the way, obviously enjoying the show. And despite the warning bells ringing inside his head, Jerry couldn't help but admire the fluidity of their movement, the perfect match between their steps and the rhythm, the way every touch - and there was a lot of touching - served the scenario they were following.

This couldn't be good. But their dancing was flawless and there was nothing he could do about it without risking a punch in the face from Kyle.

"I wish I could do that," Jimmy mumbled.

"Me too," Jessie said and nudged his shoulder. "Learn how to tango, hotstuff!"

"Wait, you know how?" Jimmy asked, surprised. "Damn, now I'm really jealous."

Bingo. Jerry had finally found a way to get closer to Kyle and Kay. And right on time, since Kyle dipped her dangerously, his hand running too high for comfort up her thigh.

"In that case, allow me to ask you to dance, Jessie," he said.

"Oh, sure," Jessie said with a smile, and headed for the dance floor.

Jerry made to follow, but Jimmy grasped his shoulder and stopped him.

"If you touch her the way Kyle is touching Kay, I'll kill you," he said pleasantly.

"Of course I won't, don't worry." And Jerry hurried to catch up with Jessie.

They started dancing, too, the steps flowing easily, Jessie following his lead, an amused smile on her face. Jerry just smiled back for a second then returned to watching his targets carefully.

"You should just quit while you're ahead," Jessie said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," he answered, leading them closer to Kyle and Kay.

"It's not going to work. You'll just make them try harder to outsmart you."

"Still have no clue."

She sighed. "You're a good dancer."

"Thank you. So are you." He only wished Kyle and Kay wouldn't be. The air practically sizzled between them. This had been a bad idea. The entire party.

Finally, the song ended. Kyle dipped Kay spectacularly on the final chords, his hand once again running up her leg, only this time he bent lower and lower towards her, and the lust in his eyes was so obvious it made Jerry shiver. He let Jessie go and headed for them.

"What a lovely dance, guys. But it's over."

It took the two a few seconds to tear their hazy gazes from each other and look at him.

"Come on, man, let them kiss!" someone yelled from the crowd.

Jerry gritted his teeth. Fortunately, Kyle and Kay started laughing and got back into an upright position. The music changed back to a bouncy club piece and the dancers returned to the floor. Kay already started moving again, but Kyle left her and Jessie to it and followed Jerry back to their table instead. And Jerry couldn't be happier. He wished they could leave already.

"How? How?" Jimmy asked as soon as they reached them.

"What?" Kyle asked with a shrug.

"How can you dance like that?" Sam elaborated.

"Took lessons since I was a kid."

"Not fair," Sam muttered. "How come you guys got to do interesting stuff and I just studied all the time?"

"Aw, come on, Sam, you got to do interesting things, too," Jerry said.

Sam just gave him the stink-eye. "Like what?"

Jerry had no idea, but he didn't want Sam to feel bad, so he searched for something. "You can read dead languages."

"Yes, because that often comes up in conversation and impresses the ladies."

Everyone laughed, even Sam, and Jerry relaxed a little. He was more than grateful when the attention returned to Kyle and his surprising dancing talent.

"Don't laugh, but impressing the ladies was Max's argument to get me to do most of the stuff I did," Kyle explained. "He had this four step program he assured me would get any girl."

"Really now?" Jimmy asked, interested.

"Yeah. Step one: be a perfect gentleman. Open doors, make a girl feel safe, be polite around her. Step two: know how to sing or play an instrument. Step three: know how to dance. And I'm not just talking classical dances. I used to have two hour classes. One hour of classical stuff, one hour of street dancing."

"Can you break dance, too?" Jimmy asked, and once Kyle shook his head, Jimmy pointed at him and let out a very satisfied, "Ha! At least I can do something you can't."

"I don't doubt you can do a lot of things I can't," Kyle answered with an eye roll.

"And what was the fourth step?" Sam asked.

"Learn how to cook."

"You can cook?" Jerry asked, shocked.

"Nope. Max can't either so he couldn't teach me. And not only can I not cook, but I'm actually disastrous at anything that implies housework. I took a class once with Kay and ended up setting my station on fire."

They all laughed, and Jerry's shoulders finally lost some of the tension. Until Jimmy decided that the subject wasn't as dry as the weather in Malta and decided to embarrass him.

"If we're completely honest, the only one of us who is a complete chick magnet is Jerry," Jimmy said, nudging Jerry's shoulder.

"Me?" Jerry asked outraged.

"Yeah, you! You're polite to the point we all want to slap you, you can obviously dance, you can sing, and you're the only one of us who can actually cook anything other than omelet."

"I do not sing," Jerry said, hoping against hope they would drop the subject, because it was unexpectedly uncomfortable to think of himself as a chick magnet.

"Come on. We all know you have the voice for it," Kyle said with a devious smirk. "And even if you didn't, you rock the violin."

"How do you all know I have the voice for it?" Jerry asked, wondering if he should point out that rock was a weird way of describing violin playing skills.

"You sing in the shower bro, we can all hear you." Jimmy laughed.

Jerry's cheeks caught fire, so he turned away from them and pretended to admire the view. Kyle paying him a compliment was the weirdest thing ever. Even if it had been months since they got along, he sometimes still felt awkward around his brother, and mainly due to the guilt weighing him down. He'd never actually apologized for being nasty.

And as he watched Kyle standing with his back against the railings, his arms crossed over his chest, surveying Kay and Jessie, Jerry realized that he really wanted to. But it was hard, especially with Sam and Jimmy there. And when Kay made his way towards them, he knew his chances were doomed. Unless...

Jerry pushed Sam towards Kay. "Go dance with Kay."

"Huh?" Sam asked, confused.

"You need it."

"Yes, Jerry has a point," Jimmy said, giving Sam a light shove.

Fortunately, Kay changed targets and grabbed Sam's hand. And once she did, he stopped fighting and followed her, still seeming confused. Jessie gestured for Jimmy to come over too, and he complied, rushing to her before Jerry could even open his mouth. Not that he would've protested. Only that now, he felt even more nervous than before.

"Good call," Kyle said, his eyes fixed on the others. "Sam really does need to loosen up a little."

"Yes." Jerry watched his little brother, too, as he seemed to try and wriggle out of it, but Kay took his hands and forced him to dance. "Kay's great."

"She is, isn't she?"

Jerry looked up at Kyle, at the focus in his gaze, the adoration he watched Kay with. When they'd met, Jerry hadn't thought him capable of positive feelings, of any depth. He'd been so wrong, so blind.

"I'm really sorry," he blurted out.

Kyle turned to him, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Why? What did you do?"

"I was such a pain when you moved home-"

Kyle raised his hand to stop him. "That's okay. I didn't exactly make it easy on you either. I was... that wasn't me."

"I know." Now Jerry knew. That hadn't been his brother, just a shadow, a weak projection of who he really was. "But I could've handled it better."

"Yes, you could have. So could've I. But we're still stupid kids, Jerry."

"You're twenty one now."

"So what? That didn't magically turn me into an adult. I still go to school and live with my parents and I can't drink anyway."

Jerry nibbled on the inside of his cheek, secretly grateful that Kyle couldn't drink, because he had a vague suspicion that their relationship would've been even more strained had his brother tried to find Kay at the bottom of a bottle. He hadn't. Kyle had kept to himself, grieving with dignity, going on with his life, focusing on school. Would Jerry have been able to do something like that? The truth was he couldn't imagine any situation that would be even comparable.

If Tina disappeared. The thought was scary and foreign. He'd never cared for someone who wasn't family as much as he cared for Tina. He'd always been a loner without close friends. But her... it hurt not talking to her, not seeing her. Was this love or just companionship?

"What are you thinking?" Kyle asked, jotting him out of his musings.

Jerry shook his head. There was no way he was getting into love talk with Kyle. "I just wanted to tell you that I'm really proud of you."

"Huh?"

At least it wasn't as awkward as he'd thought it would be. "I know it must've been very hard growing up without parents. And yet, you've turned out so well-balanced."

Kyle huffed. "Don't pity me. Max was great. I had it much better than you guys."

"I don't pity you. I just said I'm proud of you."

"Oh. Well, thanks, I guess." He frowned as if something slightly bothered him and Jerry fought the impulse to cower.

Maybe bringing that up hadn't been the best idea.

"You know, that actually means a lot," Kyle suddenly said. "And I really appreciate you telling me. I have no idea why, but I actually want your approval."

"That's flattering." And strange. "I want yours, too."

"Holy shit, Jerry. We have more things in common than we ever thought!"

Jerry cringed, fighting the impulse to tell his brother off for swearing, especially because he'd clearly done it on purpose. He was laughing about it. And as unusual as it was, Jerry found himself laughing along. Because despite the way he'd said it, Kyle's words were true.

Their little bonding moment was cut short when Kay and Jessie appeared and dragged them both on the dance floor. Jerry didn't even argue and just pretended to dance while acting like a discrete chaperone. At least Sam seemed to be having fun. It had been so long since Jerry had seen him smiling honestly, even if he looked exhausted.

Not a moment too soon, the party ended. Jerry immediately rushed them all to the bus, grateful that there was no more dancing, no more excuse for touching. No more cursed latino music. The others complied, still bubbly, Jessie and Kay still leaning too close to their boyfriends.

Oh, let this night be over faster. Thank god that they at least didn't huddle up on the bus and each took an entire row of seats to rest their feet. As he watched them, Jerry had to admit he'd enjoyed himself and a pleasant warmth filled his chest. He loved them, his brothers and sisters. And how he wished the girls were his sisters and he wouldn't have to worry about lines being crossed and ice being broken.

Fortunately, as they reached campus, nothing unusual seemed to happen. No hand holding, no touching, no nothing. It was going almost suspiciously well.

"I'm staying out for a bit," Kay said once they'd reached the pool. "I need some fresh air to cool down."

Alarm! This couldn't be good. Jerry turned to glare at Kyle, who completely ignored him and headed for his girlfriend.

"Good night, sweetheart," he said, kissing the top of her head.

And like in a magical dream, he walked away and joined the rest of them up the stairs. This was turning out to be one lucky day. But as he entered his room with Jimmy and closed the door, he got a horrible feeling that he'd been duped.

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Has Jerry been duped? Also yay for Jerry POV and brotherly bonding! Did you get s feel for Jerry in this chapter and understand the reasoning behind his lectures?

Thanks so much for reading. Now vote and comment 😊