Twinfestation

No one has been inside of Conner's house. No one. Of course his family has gone inside, but other than that no one knows what the inside looks like. I'm not sure if they don't want anyone inside or just no one has gone in, all I know is that no one outside of the McCarthy family has ever seen beyond the outer walls.

Looking up, I could immediately deduce which room belonged to Conner. The blinds were open, same as the curtain, but no light was getting in his room any time this millennium. His piles of papers and notebooks were built so high in front of it, you couldn't see anything. For a moment, like every time I come here, I doubted It was his room and assumed it was some overcrowded study or library. But he smiled down at us through the one little clear spot in the top right side of his window.

Shortly after disappearing from the window, Conner came jogging out of the front door, the Chines chick trailing after. I tried to get a look of what was behind the door, but his body blocked it all before I could see. Conner had a big smile on his face as he came towards us and his long legs bounded to the driveway in just a few steps. Even though he was wearing the bright red button up I assumed he had worn to school, the irritated skin still stood out.

"Oh!" Alan gave that look I've already gotten used to. "Are all your friends that hot?"

"Hi Ash," Conner said, smiling. "Ms. Aurora, Salem, Silvester, oh, geez."

While looking down to smile at me, Conner has caught sight of Alan who was beaming at him. Conner's smile immediately dropped, his mouth open a little, but Alan still smiled wide up at him. Conner was never good with meeting new people, especially without warning and always had a habit of grabbing someone's head when he did. Usually that someone was me, Yu, or Haru, considering we're all short and our heads are more convenient.

"Aw, geez, Silvester what happened?" Conner said once he felt the bump on the back of my head. Looking up at Say and Ash for a answer, he saw the bruise that had formed on Ash's left cheek. "Oh, geez, oh my- Ash your face. Oh my-geez, how did- god-"

"It's okay Conner." I said, cutting him off before he went on forever. "We're fine."

"Oh man- thank god! Oh geez, you guys- gosh- you really have to just, geez-"

"This is Alan."

"Hi." Alan said, still beaming. "Are you gay, too?"

"Oh! Aw, geez, well, uh, gosh, no I'm, gosh, uh, I'm."

"Conner here" Say interrupted, patting Conner on the back and starting to push him in the the back of the van, taking Jin Niu's hand to bring her along. "is our token straight guy."

"Aw fooy."

Crawling into the back of the van, Alan sat with a smile between Conner and Ash. It was almost amusing, how small they made him look, like a piece of debri blew into the pile of logs. I wondered if that was how they made me look, too. Yeah, probably.

"Hey," Alan Looked at Conner's arms with his eyebrows furrowed. "Why's your skin so red?"

"Oh, it's nothing." Conner pulled his arm away and rolled down his sleeves before Alan's wondering hands touched him. "I have eczema."

"Oh." Pulling back his hand, Alan got a almost exited look on his face. "You know, if you take a cold shower and put on lotion afterward, it helps the itching stop." When we all looked at him with surprised faces, he added. "My older sister had it."

"Cold....showers?" Jin Niu slowly repeated, the words almost incomprehensible through her accent.

"Yeah. Do you happen to have asthma, too? Because if you do and cold whether triggers it then it's probably best you don't, but if warms whether does then you should probably start taking colder showers every now and then."

"I do, I will!" Conner smiled down at Alan causing him to smile the widest I've seen yet, almost identical.

"He's straight, Alan." Mom called from the front seat.

Going red, Alan looked over at me and tried to hide his smile between his teeth. "It's contagious" He mouthed.

"I know." I mouthed back.

We picked Layla up on the way back, as requested by Say, and escorted our little party to one of the downstairs rooms. Mom seizes Conner and dragged him to the kitchen before he had a chance to try and run while the rest of us went to the TV room for our second favorite past time. Rock Band. It used to be Guitar Hero, but since Rock Band bought that we decided to conform.

"No, I can't sing that one." I complained about forty five minutes in. Layla had control and was picking out the songs that we'd downloaded so far. Every one had immediately picked up an instrument and Alan, claiming he couldn't sing to save his life, leaving me to sing.

"What do you mean?" Ash asked. "You can sing everything on here."

"I know, but I can't sing that fast." I reluctantly admitted. "It's too hard."

"You can do it, it's easy. Come on, just try it."

"No it's not easy! Stop lying."

"It is easy, trust me."

"It is not easy!"

"Your mom's easy!" Layla shouted at the exact moment our mom walked into the room with Conner, holding plates of the green brownies mom always makes him help her make. We all just stared over at her with wide eyes, Conner even looking down in shock.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry Ms. Aurora." Layla finally said with a hand over her mouth, eyes as wide as the rest of us. "No, I didn't mean it, my turrets are acting up. I'm sorry."

Mom, clearing her throat, put her plate into Conner's empty hand then began laughing so hard tears streamed down her face and she had to go for the inhaler she kept in the kitchen. After remembering that our mom was kick-ass, everyone was laughing somewhat tentatively at the situation.

Conner ended up singing the song instead, which pleases Ash enough to not argue over it. Conner could rap along to Twista, there was no limit to how fast his mouth could move and no doubt that he could sing it. Plus, when he sang he put on a show. No, he wasn't exactly a good singer -he made Salem seem like Jill Scott- but, luckily, B.Y.O.B wasn't the most melodic thing Layla could have picked.

"We're not doing anything by Alice Cooper." Layla finally told Salem after a while of dispute.

"This is my house." Say reminded her. "Therefore, we are doing every Alice Cooper song on this thing."

As if on cue, Say's phone started playing Sex, Death, and Money. "See? This is a sign we should play it." He said before he answered, everyone else switching around instruments while he talked. "Hello? Oh, nothing, playing rock band with, uh, Silver, some friends,"

"I'm not your friend." Ash said it like the words were second nature.

"and britshit. Sure, why not. Okay, see you tomorrow."

"Who was in ?" I asked.

"Hayden. He wanted help on his English, uh, crap."

That started things up. Mom had left to put Silvia down for a nap, so language wasn't exactly pleasant but that wasn't too different from usually. While Ash and Say went at it, Conner and Layla tried to ask what was going on, only making it worse when Ash tried to tell them. Alan and Jin Niu only sat there, calmly watching it all unfold. If I had to say, I would say it was Ash who started all the commotion. He usually meant well with things like this, but, right now, I couldn't see in what way.

"Guys! Hey guys, are we playing another song!?" I tried to shout over the noise. "A comments going to hit earth! Hayden's at the door! Alan's coughing up blood!" They didn't pay me any mind, even Alan and Jin Niu were to caught up in it to look my way. Assuming they weren't just ignoring me and actually didn't hear me, I yelled it out. "I'm gay!"

Conner caught on first and gave me a raised eyebrow look. "Jeez, I didn't expect that one."

"Expect what?" Ash turned his attention away from Say and Layla, the whole thing finally breaking up.

I froze in place, not able to answer the question or think enough to run out of the room before someone else did. Alan nudged my leg but I still stood there, frozen.

Now they want to hear me.

"Silvester just said he was gay." Conner answered.

"Can I have you?" Ash asked without missing a beat.

Finally able to move, I shifted and fidgeted with the edge of my shirt. "Well, um, about that." I looked down and tried to hide the blood running to my face. It's one thing to tell people you're gay, but a whole nother when it's done slightly unintentionally. Of course, there was that hope in me that they would hear and I could get this over quickly, right now, finally getting it off of my mind. But after it was said and done I was left hoping that it was just me making up fake scenarios in my head again and I'd never really said anything.

"Ash," Conner's low whisper was clear in the almost silent room, Layla going on about how we could make a foursome gay porno right now if Conner agreed to use the camera to video and let Jin Niu be the co-director. "jeez, give him a day or two."

Ash looked at him with a almost determined expression on his face, speaking slow. "But I want him now."

"I know, man, but...gosh." Conner reached for Layla's head. She didn't seem to notice, too raped up in explaining a thoroughly detailed movie, scene by scene. "Look at him, he's scared. Give him a day before you go after him, jeez, at least."

Ash sighed and twisted his watch around. "Fine, okay. I have to go anyway."

"Me too. My parents are taking Jin out, I have to watch Seamus tonight."

"So you have a date with Yu?"

Conner smiled and finally let go of Layla's head. "It is not a date. She just helps make him food that is not going to rot his teeth."

"Right, a cooking date." Ash turned to me and smiled. "I gotta go. Give ma a ride?"

Turning to Say, he shrugged, over hearing what Ash had asked and knowing it was directed towards him. He'd just never actually ask Say directly. We ended up taking everyone home, even driving Alan to the front of his house. Yeah, he could have walked, but he enjoyed the car of hot guys way too much.

We dropped off Layla after that and she ran to her room to write down her porno idea, still hounding us to say yes no matter how many no's she got. Conner, glad to just have her out of the car, finally relaxed, smiled, and tried to have a conversion with me and Jin Niu in Japanese. He knew the basics, but nothing that would get him a job as a translator. I don't know why he wanted to learn the language, he was in french two this year since he transferred halfway through sophomore year, but he was bent on learning it over any other.

We dropped off Conner and Jin Niu and headed to Ash's house. Luckily, we took the van so he didn't pick with Say about there being no room in the back. Which there wasn't, but that didn't make me like them fighting over it anymore. The van wasn't some soccer mom mini-van, it was a full blown band van. The only thing it was missing was some cheesy name on the side.

Ash jumped out of the back just in time to see his sister walk out of the house, her normal cool composure shattered. Her mom followed and yelled the worst things at her, the worst things to say and hear from a parent. My ears burned and heart lurched just hearing, not even a part of it.

"Don't come back you dirty little faggot! We don't need a lesbian bitch like you in this house! Just go live with your whore!" Seeing the van, she retreated back inside, leaving Ani in the front yard looking at the closed door.

"That bitch." Ash whispered under his breath. He walked towards his sister as she looked up then froze. From shock or fear at the look on her face, I don't know.

"Why you!?" She shouted at him. "Why do they accept you!? I'm smarter than you were, I'm more useful than you were, I'm more talented than you were when you were my age! You came out sooner! Why can they accept you and not me!? What's so special about you!?" She was about to go on but noticed us in the van. With a terrified look on her face, she turned and ran down the street, her long legs carrying her far.

"Holy shi-" Ash darted after her, not catching up but seeming to run at about the same pace.

"My god -Silver do you think we shou-" Say cut off when he looked at me, a look of shock on his face. "Silver?"

I shook my head, trying to crock out some words through my dry throat. "No. Ani wouldn't like that. My god, Ani.....Oh my god, Say." I whispered "They won't, they won't. Oh my god, what am I going to do? He's going to -oh god."

By then, I think he'd grasped that I was no longer talking about Ani. Taking my hand, he squeezed it before I pulled away and wrapped my arms around my legs. "Silvester, our parents aren't like that. You're going to be okay, you've already told your friend and they're all fine with it. It's gonna be okay."

I shook my head, scratching my face on the knees of my jeans. I didn't fully believe him, but, as always, the sound of his voice made me feel better. When he stopped talking, all my panic came back to me. What if it is like what just happened to Ani? We may be brothers but that doesn't mean we're equal in the eyes of our parents. Our father's never done anything to Say like he's done to me, he doesn't hate him like that. And to make matters worse, unlike Ani, I'm not more talented than Salem in any way. Why would they accept a skinny, scared, queer, sad kid like me?

I had no right to be accepted like Salem.

Say seemed to sense my slight panic while we were driving and began to talk. He didn't talk about anything that would seem important right now, just talked. I guess he thought that if he did he'd get my mind off of things and I didn't mind him thinking that way as long as I just kept hearing his voice.

"There's this chick in homeroom named Nicole, I'm not sure if she was there since the first day or if she changed her schedule but she's there now. She's.....odd and really blunt. Like a really nice version of Ash......only she's brown skinned, has huge tits, sounds American, complements me, and isn't a ass. So I guess she's in no way like Ash. I'm not really sure why I used him as an example. Anyway, She.... . . . . . . . . . ." He went on. And on.

And on.