Caged Mentality

I didn't expect anything like this to come out of this day. Hell, it never would have even crossed my mind I would end up agreeing to go on a date with a guy that was identical to my ex-boyfriend's boyfriend, and acted similar to the guitarist I always had to babysit. It was odd, but... In a good way. Eli still had things that made him different from those two. Different enough that it didn't feel weird.

I like Eli. He was very honest and blunt but pleasant to be around. He had an amusing sense of humor, and he was actually interested in learning about me. That was nice. Plus, he was extremely attractive.

“Where do you want to go?” I questioned as I stood up and retrieved my car keys from the pocket of my skinny jeans. I figured I would leave where we went up to him.

“We can go on a first date now, otherwise Riel's gonna complain.” He let out a laugh. He found his brother's anger entertaining. That had been made obvious earlier. “Unless you don't want to.”

He was checking to see if that was okay with me. I liked that.

“That's fine with me,” I began as I unlocked the doors to my car. “But that still doesn't answer where we're going.” I climbed into the driver's seat while he got in the passenger's side.

“I don't know... A museum... Then dinner?” He suggested in a questioning manner.

“Sure, if that's what you want,” I told him. Anything was fine with me, within reason. I was never good with coming up with date ideas. When I was with Kris, he was always the one deciding where we went. It didn't bother me- I liked when a guy knew what he wanted. It was better that way anyway, since I was never picky about where I went on a date. I didn't care, really. Just being with the person was good enough. “A bit random, but okay.” I laughed lightly while pulling out of the driveway.

“It was the first thing that came to mind,” Eli laughed.

“Well, which museum?” I asked, glancing over at him. There were a few different museums around, but I had only ever been to the music one.

“You decide,” he answered. I liked that he was letting me decide, but I honestly didn't care which one we went to. I would enjoy it either way.

“Why me?” I asked out of curiosity. I just liked to hear what thoughts were behind his words and actions. “You're the one that invited me on a date, not the other way around.”

“Cause I decided what we were doing,” He replied. I noticed him staring at me out of the corner of my eye, but I couldn't exactly look back at him. I had to drive. “Besides, which one you pick shows a bit more of your personality. I'm a curious person.”

I had that figured out already. It was another trait added to the things I liked about him. He was curious, but not nosy. When he asked questions, it wasn't in a prying way. He still had respect for privacy, he just wanted to know things.

“Okay, fine.” I let out a sigh, but smiled. I couldn't help it. He had a genuine interest in me. I glanced over at him, then back at the road.

“I guess Riel's stuck at Noah's for a while,” Eli laughed. He still had Riel's car keys with him. Poor Riel... But he could have Kris take him home if he really needed to. “You should all convince him to come back to Corpse Composure...”

He really wanted his brother in the band. To the point where he was going to bother him about it constantly. I'm sure he had already annoyed Riel with it plenty of times. Wouldn't that make him less likely to join the band again? I didn't understand why Eli wanted to keep doing it. It's better to just leave it be and let Riel decide on his own time. But I couldn't stop Eli from repeating it. The only thing I could do would be explaining my standpoint.

“Nah. The others probably would, but I'm not the kind of person that nags someone to do things like that when they don't want to,” I answered. “You wouldn't want him doing it just because he got annoyed of being told to do it, would you?”

“I suppose not. But he's miserable with the job he has now. He doesn't belong there... He's happier when holding his guitar,” he explained, punctuating his sentence with a sigh. I wasn't sure if he knew that for a fact or if he was just stating an opinion, so I didn't ask questions. Eli was Riel's twin brother after all, they had a connection no one else has. I'm sure they know each other better than anyone else ever will. But I still couldn't help wondering if all of that was completely true.

“He can't be that miserable,” I responded thoughtfully. “He's helping people. That always makes a person feel like they're actually doing something productive with their life. More so than being famous. That's just an empty life.”

“True. I don't want him to cause of fame though. He's happier playing guitar than sitting in a suit in an office.” Maybe so, but I still didn't think it was quite right for him to bother Riel about quitting his therapist job.

“Well, you should just let him make his own decisions for his life. Let him live how he wants. I know you care about his happiness, but you can't control him, you can only give him advice.”

“Yeah, I guess... But I'm his brother. I have to annoy him occasionally. I think he'll come back when he's annoyed of being mistaken for me by fans anyhow.” He let out a laugh. I chuckled along, supposing it would be kind of annoying for Riel, fans asking for his autograph constantly, thinking he's Eli. It's an entertaining thought, though.

“Maybe.”

“So...” he began after a pause. “What's your family like?”

I didn't see that coming. My family... Was something I didn't ever bring up on my own. It's not that I disliked talking about it, but I didn't enjoy doing so either. I don't have abusive or divorced parents, I don't have a horrible family. I don't wish I was an orphan or anything like that. Two of my sisters have just made some bad decisions that I'm not proud of them for.

I thought for a moment, figuring out where to start, how much to say, and how to say it. I didn't want to ramble on and bore him. Knowing every detail wasn't important.

“My mom is very kind and understanding, while my father is observant and fairly strict. She works at a day care, he owns a company. I have three older sisters. The eldest recently got busted for drug dealing, the second oldest is in college to be a vet, and the youngest of the three just moved in with some guy she met at a bar no more than a week ago.” I let out a sigh, thinking about the oldest and the youngest of my sisters. I still loved them just as much, of course, but I wish they would have given more thought to their decisions. I added, “The second oldest is the only one of the four of us doing something productive with her life.”

“You're doing something productive, though,” Eli told me with a smile. It was nice of him to say, but I couldn't believe that. What I was I doing for anyone? Nothing at all. I worked at Hot Topic, scanning bar codes, restocking shelves, and assisting customers all day. When I wasn't doing that, I was playing bass for a band that wasn't going anywhere. That's the closest I got to doing anything worthwhile.

“If you can call being in a band productive. We aren't even getting anywhere.” I paused. “At least I'm not a drug dealer, I suppose,” I said with a half smirk.

“You could get somewhere. You guys just need to clean up a bit,” Eli informed. It was nice to hear that from someone that was actually in a popular band. “We can help you with that, though.”

“That'd be cool,” I said, then realized after a moment that I hadn't asked about his family. So I did. “What's your family like? Kris said he met everyone but your sister, but he didn't tell me much, just complained about your dad.” Hell, their dad was all he told me about, except for the others' names and that Eli was Riel's twin. Kris was really pissed at Mr. Carlin, he ranted about him for a good ten minutes.

“Well, my father is really strict and old-fashioned. When Riel came out, because I'm biologically identical, he didn't believe it. I always acted straight around em. Wanted to be normal. I felt bad for Riel... But yeah...” He explained. I listened silently as he spoke, interested to know all about him and his family. “My father works as a manager of something. I don't care. My mom is very loving, Riel is her favorite. She owns a clothing store. Timmy is our triplet. She's a bitch. I always had to save Riel from her. He's such a baby at times... At least he was while growing up.”

“Yeah? What did she do to him?” I questioned out of curiosity.

“Picked on him, hurt him. See, he's more girly than she is. She took advantage of his passiveness.”

“Poor Riel... My sisters never really did anything to me, but kids at school always did,” I said, remembering my school days, where Kris was always saving me from bullies who hated me for being the pansy I was. It happened through most of middle school and all of high school. I wouldn't have gotten through it as well as I did without Kris being there.

“Riel was always in the library... None of us were really picked on. I kicked their ass if they tried,” he said, a grin spreading across his face. Of course... Why would I expect anything different from someone I was dating?

“Kris was always around to protect me,” I chuckled, thinking back on it. I never could stand up for myself. I was lucky I had Kris to do that for me. “He got pretty pissed when someone bullied me.”

“Good, hope he protects my brother then, too,” he smiled. I knew Kris would definitely do that. He's too protective not to. “Looks like he can.”

“He will. He's a pretty protective person. And really strong,” I informed with a slight laugh.

“I wonder if he's stronger than me,” Eli mused. I considered it a moment, mentally comparing what I knew of both their strength. I couldn't decide which of them was stronger. Then again, I hadn't known Eli long.

“Don't know. You're probably pretty close in strength. He works out a lot.”

“I do every day, but not enough to get super muscular. Just to stay toned, keep my six pack... I should drag Riel with me, he needs to protect himself.

“Even if he was strong enough to protect himself, I can't see him really hurting anyone,” I laughed as I parked the car at the museum.

“He could stop people and defend himself at least,” Eli said as we got out of the car. He'd feel better, too.” He stared up at the building, then looked at me.

“Yeah, I guess,” I agreed, locking the car as always, then shoving my keys in my pocket. I headed toward the door and Eli walked beside me. “I've never been here before.”

“Neither have I,” he said as he looked around, a curious look on his face. It was kind of cute. “What kinda museum is it?”

“It's an art museum,” I answered. “I thought it would be a good experience.”

“I guess this could be interesting,” Eli commented as his eyes scanned the room, mainly the other people. It really wasn't our type of place and the people weren't our type of people, but it was always good to try new things. Eli didn't seem to mind anyway. “I feel like I'm in hippie land.”

I chuckled at that. I wouldn't have thought of anything like that. “Well you're not, you're in an art museum. Come on,” I said as I began to walk.

“Hippie land is okay sometimes,” he informed as he walked with me. “Means people won't pick on you for anything. They're all high,” he laughed, making his way over to a painting and examining it very briefly. “This... looks like... a baby threw food at a wall...”

“It does,” I agreed, staring at the painting. “Maybe that's what happened. Almost anything passes for art.”

“True...” he said, then dropped that topic to jump to another. “That thing...” he pointed in the direction of another painting, then hurried over to it. I followed, looking at the painting, then watching him think with his pointer finger over his lips. “Looks like a church window exploded.”

I laughed in amusement. He came up with the oddest comparisons, but it was interesting and endearing. He had a very warm personality. “Yeah. I suppose.”

He looked around for a moment, then I felt his fingers close around my wrist so he could pull me over to yet another painting. This one I recognized.

“I don't get what this is... Melted clocks?” he questioned, staring at it. He still had a hold of my wrist, but I didn't think he'd realized that yet. I didn't mind, though I'd prefer he was holding my hand instead. He continued, “Looks like someone was fuckin' high and found a paintbrush,” he half-laughed, then looked down, finally noticing that he still had my wrist. He mumbled a quiet apology and let go, seemingly reluctant.

I smiled at him “It's fine.” I laced my fingers with his. His hand was bigger than mine, and I could feel callouses on the pads of his fingers from years of playing guitar. He had a comfortable grip – not too loose, but not too tight. He didn't want to let go, but he didn't want to hurt me.

His gaze was fixed on me, but I turned my attention back to the painting. It wasn't as horrible as some of the other paintings here, at least, not in my opinion. I kind of liked this one.

Eli soon redirected his eyes to the painting and added another comment. “It should be renamed acid.”

I chuckled. I wasn't going to disagree. “Well, maybe you should get a Sharpie and rename it yourself if you think so.”

“Okay,” he shrugged and pulled out a pen. I was kidding... But he took the pen and wrote 'Acid' underneath the painting. He had neater handwriting than the average guy's. It was still simple though. It fit him.

“Makes more sense now,” he commented, smiling, proud of himself. I rolled my eyes, but couldn't keep from grinning.

“That's great...”

“Wasn't it?” he asked, smirking, as he pulled me off to another painting. “I'm here to entertain. That's my life purpose,” he stated. He was very good at entertainment. He laughed and pulled me a bit closer, which I didn't mind at all. “This... No wonder... Why the fuck does every art piece replicate something a person would see on acid... or meds... Artists are weird...” he rambled.

“So they're a bit messed up in the head, oh well,” I smirked. “It gives them a different way of seeing things,” I said, looking at him. “Their art is unique, you have to give them that. That's how the pieces all ended up famous.”

“They're unique if you've never done drugs,” he laughed. “But I guess they can paint well.”