I Won't Lie to You

I stared out the window with my twin’s head on my shoulder. Mina had fallen asleep on the ride home; cried herself to sleep was more like it. I didn’t understand that, really. Dad left us and that was that. I guess no one ever taught him ‘bros over hoes’.

I shifted slightly at that thought, trying to keep my movements subtle enough not to wake my sleeping sister. Yeah, I may have been upset but that’s no reason to take it out on my sister. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw my twin’s tear-streaked face and I felt my face contort into a sad expression. But then I remembered how my dad had just left us like that and I went right back to being angry.

Nicolas was listening to some kind of blaring music, but I didn’t dare look at him and his corruptible innocence. I was sure he didn’t know the real reason why my father was sending me to live with him while he went to Australia. He didn’t have to know; he shouldn’t have to know that there are people like that in the world that leave their families for women.

But I felt his eyes on me, observing my impulsive behavior, I was sure.

As we pulled into the driveway, his mother turned to wake up Mina, who jolted upright to see what was going on. She fell back against the seat and away from my shoulder so that I could get out of the car.
As I opened my car door Nicolas’s mom asked, “Can you boys get the luggage? We’re going to get Mina to her room.”

I couldn’t help myself with rolling my eyes as they met with Nicolas’s gaze before hurling myself out into the cold.

I waited for Nicolas to open the trunk of the SUV with the keys hi mom had handed him. When he opened it, he’d grabbed the heaviest bag – the one filled with my textbooks for school. He struggled to keep himself upright with the strain. He must have decided that since he’d taken the bag, he needed to get it up to the house.

I rolled my eyes at him. “Give me that.” I ordered him – almost sounding like a growl.

“Wh-why?” He stuttered, most likely because of the cold. But then again, I was pretty scary so that might have been it too.

“You obviously can’t carry it.” I stated, as if the answer was obvious – which it was.

I grabbed the bag roughly and began carrying it away from him. But then he grabbed it back away from me.

I can’t say I wasn’t surprised that he had it in him to stand up to me. But I didn’t want him having to carry my textbooks. “Oh come on! Now you’re being stubborn.” I told him as he struggled to carry it to the porch. That was what cued me to finally give in and negotiate. “Fine. Tell you what, let me carry that and I’ll… I won’t make fun of you for being short.”

He spun around to look at me, dumbfounded. I must not have looked like the negotiating type.

But then he grinned and said, “Okay, okay. You can carry it. But only ‘cause you’re special.” He laughed at his copy-cat tone.

But I gawked, thinking I hadn’t heard right. That wasn’t possible. Me? Special? “I’m… what?” I asked, trying to get him to clarify what he was talking about, because there was no possible way that he’d called me special.

“Yeah, you’re special, so you can carry it.” He told me. Okay, so my hearing wasn’t completely fucked.

But now that I was able to hear his tone more clearly, I knew he was just messing around. But I couldn’t help but want to hear that again. It felt so familiar in a strange way.

But then I felt my face revert to its normal, irritated expression as I took the bag from him and made my way up to the porch and up to my room. I set the bag down on the floor next to my bed and flopped down on the mattress, begging sleep to come for me.

In the morning, I was woken up by a noise blaring through the room. So I grabbed my pillow and threw it at the noise. “Oww…” I heard something respond to the thrown object.

I hated being woke up in the morning. But I didn’t want to be mean to the only kid who’d told me I was special. But my contrary nature had ended up taking a course all its own.

I rolled over and tried to block out the noise, but it had become too much for me to stand so I finally snapped and growled, “Turn that shit of. I’m sleeping.”

“But I-” I cut him off.

“Either turn the game off or… or…” I struggled to find what I could possibly want from Nicolas as I turned to face him, my hair flopping around my face. “Or you can tell me I’m special again and I’ll let you keep playing it.”

He gawked at me stupidly. “Huh?” I wouldn’t have expected me to say that either. But I wanted to hear that from him. I needed it like the nicotine I couldn’t have anymore. But I couldn’t comprehend why. But I had to look away from him so I turned again in the bed to face the wall.

“You can keep the game on… if you tell me I’m special like you did last night.”

I didn’t expect him to say it, but he did. “Y-You’re special…” He stuttered just loud enough so that I could hear him.

I froze and wrapped my arms tightly around myself to contain the strange feeling in my stomach at the speech from Nicolas. But I didn’t say anything else and I didn’t hear his game going off either.

“I don’t hear your game.” I told him venomously.

“U-uh, sorry.” He quickly apologized (though I couldn’t comprehend why).

After awhile of hearing his game go off, I suddenly realized how hungry I was. “Make me something to eat.” I meant for it to come out as if I were asking, but the way I’d said it made it sound like an order.

“I don’t think so.” Apparently he thought so too, because I could hear him becoming pissed off and that, in turn, pissed me off.

“God damn it. You’re really fucking useful.” I growled as I got off the bed and walked over to him as I found his game more interest than food. But I was still in a bad mood from his tone of voice. “Fine. Teach me how to play your shitty game then.” I hissed, sitting down on his bed a good distance away from him.

Of course, I’d never played a video game before because, well, I was always too busy studying.

Just as I was starting to cool down, he responded with a smart ass tone as he said, “Nope.” And that fired me back up. And I liked it. I enjoyed arguing with Nicolas. As strange as it seems.

“Don’t say no to me.” I growled back with a threatening undertone.

“Just did.” He said, without looking up at me.

The sunlight hit my eyes, making me squint as I turned to him, realizing I didn’t want to fight with him anymore. I’ve had Mina tell me I was bipolar before, so I figured that was the reason for me wanting to fight with him and then not wanting to fight with him the next minute. Shit. I was fucked up today, wasn’t I?

I caught something under his hair, but it surprised me because it wasn’t the color it was supposed to be. His other eye. The light green tint was almost easy to see beneath his black hair. I didn’t say anything; there had to be a reason he was covering it up.

But, dammit, his eyes were, well, amazing. Although I don’t think I’d voice that out loud.

“Please?” I asked him, trying to take my mind off of his strangely alluring eyes. Of course, that might be considered an incredibly gay thought – I didn’t care. Like I’ve said before: I hate people in general. So a compliment from me was almost a non-existent reality.

But somehow this kid was pulling those thoughts from me.

“Okay! Fine. Grab a controller from the cabinet and hook it up.” He instructed, pointing to the cabinet under the TV. “You know how to do that, don’t you?”

No. I didn’t. “Uh…” I muttered, getting caught up in the slight glimpse of his green eye.

“Seriously?”

His tone brought out the volatile side of me. “Fuck this; I’m going to get something to eat.”

I guess that made him decide against his smart-ass remarks because then he called out to me as I stood up. “Oh, come on, I’ll teach you.” Then he grinned up at me.

That set off some weird feeling in my stomach like I was going to be sick, but in a good way. “You’ll be a total tech geek by the end of the week.”

I took a seat on the bed again, this time closer so that he could teach me.

He was right; I’d be a tech geek by the end of the week if he kept up teaching me. Not only that, but this game was fucking addicting as hell. But it also frustrated the hell out of me.

I threw the controller onto the bed, almost tossing it harshly to the floor before remembering that it was Nicolas’s and I didn’t want to break something of his.

“Damn it! Almost fucking had it!” I growled at the game. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Nicolas roll his eyes from where he was sitting.

I hadn’t even realized that his mother was at the door asking if we were hungry because breakfast was almost ready. Though her voice was muffled because she hadn’t opened the door. His parents are polite, unlike my father who left Mina and I.

Then I was reminded of the growing hunger pains in my stomach so I stood up and abandoned the game in the room so I could go get the food that was in the kitchen.

Mina seemed better today so that was good; Nicolas’s mother was a good distraction for her, I supposed.

Nicolas’s mom was rushing around the house like she was in a hurry and I had no idea why.
She gave my sister a kiss on her forehead and was about to give one to her son but stopped to say, “Be good Nicolas.”

I flinched as she caught me by surprise with a kiss on the forehead like she’d done to Mina and Nicolas. “Sorry I have to leave you two on your first day her, but-” She began, addressing Mina and I.

“It’s okay, Anya, really.” Mina told her, trying to reassure her that we‘d be okay. She Mina turned to me and mockingly added, “I’ll make sure Zero doesn’t do anything stupid.” I rolled my eyes at her.

“Okay, kids, be careful.” She said.

“You too, Mom.” Nicolas told her before she disappeared through the front door.

After I’d eaten the pancake Mina had given to me (which I don’t even think Nicolas saw that I’d eaten it) I said, “Hey, let’s go back and play that game.”

He nodded without fighting me before leading me back up the stairs to his room so we could play the fighting game.