What You Know Is True

Chapter 6

“My neighbor’s seen me naked. Twice. Well, the second time I was in my underwear,” Chasha confessed. I looked over at my laptop from where I was rummaging through my closet. Her apathetic face filled the screen.

“Seriously, Chasha, seriously,” I groaned.

“It wasn’t on purpose!” she squeaked. “I forgot I left my window wide open and I walked out of my bathroom without any top on and there he was on his balcony that conveniently faces my window–“

“You’re getting old men horny. Great.”

“And then the other time I was home alone and you know how I don’t really like wearing clothes.” I flop onto my bed with a groan. If Chasha wasn’t a nudist, then I was a saint.

“I was going into the kitchen and the blinds were pushed back on the patio doors and whoops, there he was. Watering his plants that were facing my direction.”

I couldn’t hold it any longer and burst out laughing. I hit my forehead on my keyboard and snorted. The fact stuff like that happened to Chasha all the time was sad yet hilarious.

Chasha went on to say she was making a conscious effort to avoid windows and her neighbor. After awhile I mentioned the Grimoire to her. I didn’t tell her I had stolen it, since I knew she’d nag my head off if I did. I did mention I tried a love spell and that nothing happened.

“It was freaky,” I said, ignoring Chasha calling me a dork under her breath. “I thought something actually worked.”

“It probably did . . . on the wrong person. Maybe it worked on that old lady next door to you. She’s still alive, right?” she laughed. I scowled at her and she merely shrugged. “Just saying. Anywho, how’s my son doing?”

“Louie’s weirder than ever,” I replied. “Like freaky. I think he’s hiding something.”

Chasha’s smile spread across her face even more. “It might’ve worked on him.”

“I’d rather you throw you up in my mouth instead.”

“Ooh, baby. Didn’t know you were into that.”

I told her to shove off before saying goodbye and ending the chat. I pulled the drawer open on my desk and grabbed the Grimoire. It smelled like the charcoal from last night. I opened to the first page and noted two pages that were stuck together. I pulled them apart slowly and read the bolded print, messily handwritten by someone. Maybe I was over thinking it, but the words looked like they were made recently. Maybe by the person who had the book before me?

“Will cause more trouble than good.
Some spells aren’t meant to be tried.”

If this was a creepy horror movie, the eerie music would’ve started and the atmosphere would have become tight with apprehension, while the audience became antsy as the character had a premonition.

But my life wasn’t a movie, and if it was, the lousy director was the reason why it was so jacked up.

x x x x

I was 13 when my parents divorced. I liked to tell people I don’t remember how they told us, or that it happened suddenly, out of nowhere. Truth was I knew the divorce was coming before the constant fighting and stress began. I knew as soon as she went away our little family would cave in and die.

Louie and I were watching Spiderman on TV when our parents stood in front of us and Dad said, “Me and your mom are getting a divorce.”

We don’t have those set up visitation things like most kids with separated parents usually have. Me and Louie visited dad whenever. We kind of treated it like we were visiting a friend we hadn’t seen in awhile.

Tonight we were all heading to the movies. I asked Dad where Cynthia was and he told me she was out with a friend for their birthday.

It was barely two-and-a-half years later when Dad met someone else and remarried. Cynthia was a stark contrast from Mom: high energy, a little bigger, and Filipino. It was awful getting to know her. It always felt awkward, and I used to joke to Louie how she was a mail-order bride. But she was really cool and pretty, not annoying like I thought stepmoms would be.

We drove to the theatre and chose to see the new Marvel film. If there was one thing we all loved it was superheroes and comic books.

After Dad and Louie got some popcorn we sat in the theatre. We had ten minutes till the previews actually started so I checked out the place. Lots of teen guys and dads with their kids, with gangs of girls spread about. I grabbed a handful of Louie’s popcorn and tried to stuff it all in my mouth. Louie placed a couple in his mouth before looking disdainfully at the bucket.

“You want it?” he asked a few minutes later. “I’m not as hungry as I thought.”

I took the bucket while Louie crossed his arms and slouched in his seat. I kept catching him staring at me but he never said anything.

“You used to tell me a movie wasn’t good without ‘fattening popcorn,’” Dad joked. Louie scoffed and mumbled something.

Dad looked at him knowingly. He hated when people mumbled and constantly reminded us not to. Louie sighed louder and sat up a little straighter in his seat before Dad could get on him about that too. “I said it’s junk and I don’t really need it.”

“Thanks for letting it poison my system instead,” I said, tossing one at his head and grinning when it got stuck in his hair. Louie’s mouth became a tighter line but he didn’t do anything.

Because I thought I should be a good brother in front of Dad, I kicked Louie’s foot and asked quietly, “What’s up with you?”

“Nothin’,” he said. “Why something always gotta be the matter with me?”

“Cause there usually is,” I replied.

He wanted to say something else, probably tell me to stop being an ass, but the lights dimmed and the previews came on. I propped up my feet on the seat in front of me and munched on my popcorn, while Louie continued to sit tense and strait-laced.

x x x x

I’ve never bothered to try out those arcade games theatres have. But once the movie was over, Dad had met some guy he apparently used to go to work with, and knowing Dad, we were going to be at the movies for another hour.

I checked out a shooting game titled Silent Residents of Evil Zombie Hill, and the level of gore in it was acceptable. This might sound creepy of me, but I liked gore. Which was sort of weird, considering my nightmares tended to be kind of gory, and I’d wake up terrified, feeling death was closer to me than usual.

Then again my nightmares tended to be about Josee.

She never liked gore but she loved the campy horror movies from before the 90s. She used to take me to this independent movie theatre that showed old horror films from time-to-time. Then we’d go to the ice cream parlor next door where the old owner would hit on Josee.

Thinking of Josee reminded me of Louie. I glanced around for him and saw him just as he was waving goodbye to some girl near the concession stand.

He walked over to me with a bashful smile on his face. “Is that your crush or something?” I asked dryly.

“What? No, she’s my friend from school. I was just talking to her,” he said, the smile dripping off. “You’re sounding like mom now.”

A zombie came on the game screen and I shot it immediately. “I’m just joking . . . If you don’t like girls just say so,” I sighed. A man passing by looked at us confusingly and Louie’s face burned up.

“F--k you,” he hissed. A woman walking by with a toddler glared at him and Louie quickly shrank back into his shell.

A loud gunshot came from the game and it flashed High Score in dripping, red letters. “You crushing on someone else then?” I said as I put the toy gun back in the holster and turned toward him.

There it was again. That wide-eyed, desperate look in his eyes like he had a secret to tell. He wasn’t wearing his green contacts again, and somehow that made him look eerier without them. I cleared my throat and tugged on the hem of my shirt. It felt like everyone in the building was burning their eyes into me, but it was just Louie, staring at me like I did something.

He quickly averted his attention and asked calmly, “Did you love Lotzie?”

Even though I hadn’t expected that, I didn’t dwell on my answer for too long. It almost made me laugh in a weird way. “Yeah. I mean, I thought I did,” I admitted. My chest tightened at the words but I ignored it. “Why?”

“No reason,” Louie said. “I just wonder about stuff like that.”

I wanted to ask him why again, but Dad was walking over to us, and I decided maybe it wasn’t important. Louie never made sense half the time anyway.

When Dad was near us Louie said, “You’re not that bad, Dal.”

It took me awhile to realize he hasn’t called me Dal since Josee went away.

x x x x

Louie and I stayed the night at Dad’s house. We both ended up watching TV in the livingroom and eating the butter cookies Cynthia had made earlier. I nearly devoured them all. The minute before I die, I want my last meal to be Cynthia’s butter cookies and a glass of root beer.

I was on one end of the couch while Louie sat on the other side. I wasn’t paying much attention to what was on TV. I thought about going to bed when I realized something. “This is the longest we’ve gone without arguing or annoying each other,” I said. “If you don’t count earlier.”

Louie laughed softly but his expression was neutral, almost bored. I figured he wasn’t going to reply, so I was about to go see if there were anymore cookies when he finally spoke.
.
“Do you really hate me?” he asked and I made this weird, strangled sound. I wasn’t expecting that.

“Huh?”

“My friends always ask me why exactly we hate each other and I say we don’t. We just don’t get along,” he explained, voice becoming quieter with each word. He started fidgeting in his spot and picking at the loose thread on his shirt.

I gave him the quickest answer that came to me because it was all I wanted to say. “The same reason they hate their brother or sister.”

He knew it was a lie, and he knew I was aware of his knowledge of that, but he kept quiet. I waited for him to say or do something, because Louie always was the emotional one. “The sensitive Medina boy,” old ladies would say. Louie was the one who took things to heart. I tried not to care about anything.

A tiny voice came out and said, “I don’t hate you.”

“We don’t really like each other,” I countered, and that was that.

But Louie had a knack of ruining things so it wasn’t.

He turned his body toward me and stared, lips tight together. I sneered and laughed uneasily. I was going to say something obscene, and then he was going to flip me off. Instead, as soon as I opened my mouth Louie had leaned over into my space.

And he kissed me.

You know how sometimes things happen unexpectedly, and your mind is in an ultra slow mode? It’s trying to figure out what just happened and how you should react. Meanwhile, your senses are going off, ricocheting against your skull, telling your brain to hurry up and do something. All I could comprehend was cold lips on mine and it seemed a century before I got it together and shoved Louie back so hard he fell onto the floor.

I nearly fell over too when I quickly stood up, hovering over Louie like I was ready to kick him. And I wanted to.

“What the hell are you doing?” I yelled. “What the ---- what was that? You – you –“

Louie kissed me.

He laid there, eyes wider than his face. His body started shaking all over and he was gasping, breath rattling in his throat. He was acting more mortified than me, yet he was the one who caused the mess.

I wanted to hit him, yell at him, and curse at him. That had to be a joke. He couldn’t have been serious.

My blood boiled my muscles and my hands formed into fists as I shouted, “What was that?”

Louie’s mouth was moving but only squeaks and broken words came out. “I-I’m sorry. I –“

“What kind of prank was that?” My voice got louder, the anger wouldn’t go down, and I couldn’t think anymore. I thought I yelled some more, because eventually Dad came downstairs and asked what were we doing.

I couldn’t look at him, and I didn’t tell him what Louie had done. I walked past him and up the stairs to Louie and me’s bedroom.

Louie never came up. I spent the night staring at the ceiling and keeping my brain from exploding till I fell asleep.
♠ ♠ ♠
(Edit: So this chapter was deleted when Mibba's server crashed. So here it is again ~)

SURPRISE.

Because I feel the need to say this, Dallas will not be ~ romantically or otherwise in love~ with Louie. Just so you know.