Amazing, Because It Is.

To himself everyone is immortal; he may know that he is going to die, but he can never know that he is dead. - Samuel Butler.

“I never would’ve taken you for a Mayhem sister, you know,” Jack commented offhandedly, startling me out of my bleak solitude. I set aside his Green Day album, opting for the cup of cocoa his mother had brewed me while I searched for some brand of reply.

Jack and I had been hanging out more and more often, but not so much because we enjoyed each other’s company, though I was not opposed to him. It was more as a cover-up, so that Jack appeared to be talking to someone when he spoke to Alex. So his mom didn’t get suspicious, he said.

I found it to be quite the futile effort, because rather than his mother thinking her son was crazy, she seemed to be otherwise disillusioned, thinking that he had some sort of thing for me. She was sickeningly sweet. Or maybe I was just terribly cynical and she was genuinely that polite to strangers. I wouldn’t be surprised if I had to add that to my list of flaws.

“Um…why?” I finally asked, coming up empty when it came to witty replies. I was hard-up for witty repartee, unfortunately. It left along with my good humor.

“You just have that, like, nice look that they definitely don’t have,” he shrugged, his tone flippant and blasé. I discreetly swept the room, looking for Alex. He usually saved me from the awkward social situations I was drawn to like a moth to a flame.

“They’re not as bad as everyone makes them out to be,” I sighed, tucking my dramatic, choppy bangs behind one ear, wondering why I even bothered to defend them. I truthfully didn’t care, and knew very well that they didn’t deserve it.

“When you’re on the inside,” he retorted immediately, a strange look in his eyes which piqued my curiosity. I wondered what they had done to him. Something heinous, no doubt.

“What are you two love birds talking about?” Alex cooed, snatching up the area of carpet between me and Jack, plopping down and fanning out a selection of CD’s like a winning hand of poker.

Both Jack and I blushed furiously. Why did guys have to make every situation exponentially more awkward than it already was?

“I was telling Brooklyn to stop hanging out with the Mayhem Twins,” Jack summarized, looking to Alex for concurrence. He would get it, of course.

“See, Brooke? I’m not the only one that hates them. In fact, the only people who don’t hate them are you, themselves, and guys who want some. Scratch that, the guys who want some hate them too,” he shrugged, glib about the whole situation, when in truth, he didn’t understand at all.

I honestly didn’t enjoy Sanchez and Dallas anymore than the next person, but I was already in too deep, and ever sinking. I knew too much. And I feared that if I tried to get away, they’d focus all their energy on making my life hell.

And if I thought life sucked at the moment, breaking it off with the Mayhems would prove just how wrong I was.

- - -

“Let’s go, biscuit,” Dallas chirped, waving me over as Sanchez swung her keys enticingly. I looked over my shoulder, biting my lip as Alex waved me over to Jack’s table, where he was currently seated.

“I really can’t skip anymore,” I shrugged apologetically, shaking my head in response.

They looked simultaneously shocked for about two point five seconds before donning identical scowls.

“Suit yourself, bitch,” Sanchez shrugged, taking hold of Dallas’s arm. They rode away in their huff-mobile and I turned to join Jack’s table, grinning shyly, slight embarrassment coloring my cheeks as Alex applauded me loudly, hooting at random intervals. Sometimes I forgot that no one else could hear his carrying on besides Jack and myself, and tended to hush him during class, which only made me look crazier. He got a kick out of it, though.

I knew it wasn’t the last I would hear from the Mayhem Twins, and I was certain they still considered us friends, but I was well on my way to freedom. And you know, it did taste mighty sweet.