She Can't Read Minds

“Hey! Rand-Rand! Miranda! Andi! Come here!” Will shouted from his spot on the floor in front of the television in the den. Any minute now Markus and Cal were coming over for another day of fun filled videogame-ness. Our winter vacation is almost over; meaning we still have tomorrow and then hello, it’s back to school time. Today Jenna and Bridget were coming over and Leslie was gonna stay at her house with Nellie. Apparently, they’re like best friends now. When we were at the movies and Cal and I pretended to be the opposite gender and dating, Griffin moved over by Leslie. Markus told Will who told me that Leslie said the date got 100% better after that. I guess Cal was boring her somehow. “You never told me about the movie with Griffin.” Will grinned when I entered the room.

“I thought Markus told you everything.” I came and sat beside my brother. He handed me a controller but I pushed it back to him. I’m pretty horrible at these kinds of things; scary horrible. Will shrugged, tossing the controller over his shoulder.

“Only his part of it, not yours.” Will leaned over and turned the system on. He uses a new one each day so all of his “babies” get used. It’s very weird how obsessed he is. Wait, his part? I opened my mouth to speak but Will interrupted, “He had a good time. She laughed at his jokes, was pretty, barely talked during the movie, was pretty, didn’t hog all the popcorn like you do, was-”

“-pretty, I get it. Damn, jeez, all I wanted to know was whether or not he had fun.” I crossed my arms against my chest and leaned against his side. He grumbled inaudibly under his breath, pressing buttons rapidly. “I had a blast, if you must know.”

“Before or after you ditched the Griff?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. At me or the game, is the real question someone should be asking.

“After and what the hell? The Griff? Are you guys all best friends now or something? Have you even met the kid, let alone talked to him?”

“Nah, he seems like too much of party for these old bones.” Will smirked, doing a little move with his hands as he glanced at me. I rolled my eyes, not bothering to fight back the smile he brought on with his weird little dance. “But Markus was freaking out about where you went; he was so freaked out, in fact that he thought he saw you with some chick. It was mighty funny. What with his brown eyes all big and ha, too funny. But seriously, where’d you go?”

“Markus did see me then,” I smiled, “cause Cal dressed up as a-”

“Don’t talk about it!” Cal snapped, sitting down between Will and me. He looked like shit; his hair all messed up and scratches randomly spread out upon his skin. I felt my jaw drop as I ran my fingers over his cheek. Markus watched me with some emotion on his face I couldn’t pin down. He sat down on my brother’s other side. Cal slapped my hand away, “Don’t touch them and don’t,” his eyes glued onto mine in a scary death stare, “ask about them. Let’s just play the fucking videogame, like we planned. C’mon, hand over the controller so I can kick some ass.”

Will hesitantly handed him the controller he had tossed earlier, flinching when the boy snatched the controller away. I looked over to Markus who gave me a weak smile, sad eyes, and a shrug. Cal twitched under the stares we flashed onto him until he finally sighed. Rubbing the back of his neck with one hand, telling us, “My dad’s with your mom. They’re talking about going on some vacation for a weekend to some cabin by some lake. I don’t know. Belle’s pissed off because Yale didn’t accept her, but-but Harvard did. That wasn’t what she wanted though so she…” He trailed off staring at his little man on the television screen. I wanted to hug him, but I didn’t want to hurt him.

“So Belle did this to you?” I asked, worried.

“She scratched you up like that?” Markus asked, sounding in awe.

With our questions, Cal was back to who he was seconds before with the snapping at us. “I said I didn’t want you to ask about them. I just wanna play the fucking game!” How could anyone do this to someone as amazing as Cal? The rest of the videogame marathon, I would step into the room every so often to check on Cal. He would always flinch when someone yelled and say ouch when he’d get so into the game he’d hit something or someone would hit him. Who would do that to him?