Fade Away

I slammed my door shut with a frustrated groan. Only Maika would be boring enough to not take advantage of having the whole house to ourselves for the weekend. I wanted to have fun. I wanted to party. I wanted to do something. Maika, however, decided we should be responsible and watch the house as we were told.

"Tari?" I heard him call with two knocks on my door. "Come on, don't get upset. You know partying is a bad idea."

"Shut up, Maika. Leave me alone," I said, mimicking his attempted optimistic tone. Maika opened the door anyway and dropped onto my bed next to me.

"Tari, we can have fun here," he sing-songed with a smile. I rolled my eyes and pulled my pillow over my face. "Why are you so difficult?"

"Why are you?" I shot back.

"We are not going out tonight," he said. I threw the pillow are his head.

"/We/ don't have to. /I/ will," I clarified.

"No, Taryn." His tone made me drop the argument. Maika never used my full name unless I was really pissing him off. Or if he was teasing me. Somehow, I didn't think he was teasing this time.

"Fine," I said, choosing not to test my luck.

"Thank you. Now come on. Mom bought us ice cream." Maika stuck his hand out to pull me up and I smiled before accepting his gesture.

"Cookies and Cream?" I asked. Maika noded.

"And Birthday Cake. I think there's some Vanilla for Root Beer Floats, too."

"Oh, I want one of those," I said. A Root Beer Float sounded excellent right now. And just like that, I forgot about the party on Ryland Ave. I could have plenty of fun right here at home with my brother. "But I get to pick the movie."

It was tradition. One Friday out of every month, Maika and I would gather a bunch of snacks and watch movies all night, sacrificing any other plans we may have had. We called it Fatty Friday and I was thankful our fast metabolisms could still catch up with the amount of crap we always ate.

"What is it this month?" Maika asked as he got out the glasses and ice cream.

"Um... Narnia. Both of them."

"Aren't we a little old for Narnia?" he asked, looking at me skeptically as he prepared the Floats.

"You're never too old for Narnia," I replied. Maika shrugged. "I'll get the Oreos."

Within minutes, we had set up camp in the living room, just the way we had since we were five. Fort and all. When we moved the two couches to where the backs faced each other, put a bar stool in the center and tossed a comforter over the top, we actually ended up with a very spacious hideout. It took longer than necessary to set it up this time because our normal sheets were being washed so we spent a little time arguing over who's spare sheets were who's. Of course, I was wrong about the blue sailboats being mine. My sheets were actually the old Harry Potter set from my ten year old days.

"Can we start now?" Maika whined, already finished with his Float. Somewhere in the midst of things, he had popped a bag of popcorn and was now eating that.

"All you have to do is press play," I said. But we both knew the remote was on top of the entertainment center, as far as it could possibly be from our fort. "You're closer," I said quickly.

"I'm definitely not!" he said, scooting back against the wall.

"Yes, you are! Come on, Maika. Please?" I whined and, of course, he gave in. "Fine, but you have it next month." I just nodded.It's not like either of us would remember. And if someone did, it would be me, meaning Maika would still get sent out of the fort to get whatever we'd forgotten. I loved being the one with the great memory.

"Tari?" Maika said, laying down on his stomach next to me.

"Hm?" I answered, looking at my brother.

"Do you ever think of getting away?"

"Getting away from what?"

"Here. This house. This city. This state. Do you--" he paused and took a breath, as if debating his next words. "Do you ever think of just packing up and leaving and never coming back?"

I frowned. "No. I like it here. And we'll be leaving for college soon anyway. What's the rush?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Maika said. I knew that wasn't how he wanted to end the conversation. I was tempted to ask him why he was aking but he wouldn't tell me if I did. So why waste the effort?

I didn't say anything because I knew when Maika got in these thinking moods, talking to a rock would be more productive. In fact, I fell asleep halfway through The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, which probably pleased Maika because that meant he didn't have to watch Prince Caspian. Not that he was focused on much of anything besides whatever was going on in his head.