Everyday Combat

I didn't really see all that much of Zack in school the following day. I mean, obviously I saw him before homeroom then in lessons and at morning break and lunch but not properly to talk to because he was with Sarah. And suddenly I had remembered how much I didn't like that relationship.

Never before had I been thankful that Zack and my self's behaviour got us grounded by mom 'cause that meant Sarah couldn't come round and he couldn't go to hers. He was just lucky that mom had been away that night or he would have had to have waited till he got to school to see her again.

But anyway, being forced to come straight home (of course accompanied by Brian because everyone else lived in the other direction) I got my time alone with him and I could help but notice a twitch in his hand. One he'd never had before either.

Curious with a possible idea as to why he was twitching - because I'd seen the behaviours displayed before by friends - I stepped closer to him and sniffed, the smell of cigarettes strongly hitting the back of my throat and momentarily making me cough. Zack began patting my back but I waved him off and gulped some water down.

Once I was done I took a deep breath before remembering what I'd been doing in the first place. "Zack, you smell like Brian," I pointed out.

"Huh?" He raised an eyebrow at me in confusion, obviously not getting what I was on about.

"You smell like cigarettes," I explained.

For a moment he did nothing, and I mean nothing before he shrugged and carried on walking. I took that to mean 'well I'm not smoking if that's what you think' but he should have known better than to lie to me. Not that I had proof it was a lie but still, we were close which meant we couldn't really lie to each other.

I glanced at Brian who shrugged himself before saying his goodbyes and heading down his street. This was bugging me. I mean, I didn't exactly care if Zack started smoking but mom and dad would flip if they found out. They'd always told us no matter how many tattoos or piercings we wanted whilst it wasn't exactly legal for us to get them, we couldn't smoke until we were 18.

Like I said, they would flip.

We walked in silence the rest of the way home. I wanted to push Zack about this but I didn't want him going berserk at me for bugging him. Gahhh, having a twin can be so annoying some times.

Stepping into the hallway Danzig ran through, wagging his tail so profusely he almost knocked the phone table over as he weaved awkwardly through our legs and tried to jump up to lick us both. We had to share Dan. Mom and dad wouldn't buy us both puppies so we had to settle for a shared one.

Which was our border collie Danzig, who, when dad took us to the dog pound, was the cutest and naughtiest puppy in there. Which was exactly why we picked him, then went home and told mom he was as good as gold. The first thing he did was pee on the living room carpet. Mom wasn't happy.

Dropping our school bags to the floor, we both bent down to fuss him which made him wag his tail even more. "Okay guys," mom said appearing in the kitchen doorway; we didn't pay her much attention because we were giving it all to the dog. "Upstairs to start on your homework please. Your dinner will be ready in an hour then you can walk him."

We just nodded, grabbed our bags and hurried on up the stairs, Danzig hurriedly dashing up before we could and standing almost proudly at the top looking down at us both as if to say 'for fuck sake don't be so slow'. I wasn't surprised to see he went into Zack's room though I wasn't so bothered 'cause Flash and Gordon (our hamsters) were both awake and he'd bark at them.

I figured, if they were up here instead of in the living room where they normally lived, mom had been cleaning. Switching on my computer I grabbed all the stuff I needed for my homework and piled it on the desk before heading downstairs to get a drink.

I was thankful mom and grandma had resolved their argument because - even though she had grounded us both because she busted us setting off our prototype stink bomb Jimmy had asked us to make for his sisters graduation - she was being nice again and not threatening to slap us all the time.

Sitting and beginning with the homework, the urge to just sign into AIM was almost painful. I'm a very sociable person. Okay I lie I'm considered weird because Zack and I are...simultaneous far too much and I don't get on with girls but the people I do talk to are nice and I like talking to them.

After a while I decided my room was too quiet and needed music but since the disc I wanted was in my brothers room I had to get up off my chair, leave my beloved homework undone for a few minutes, and travel out of my door across the landing to his. Which was such a tragedy.

Not.

To get his door open I actually had to shove it with my shoulder and kick it a few times because he had that much crap all over his floor. At least I had pathways around my crap and my doorway was clear for easy opening and closure. "Dude, seriously you need to..." I trailed off, watching as he scrambled away from his bedroom window which was open.

I stopped talking and stared at him where he stood in the middle of his room looking sheepish.

"You need to find better ways of hiding it Zack, mom isn't stupid and you know it," I pointed out. "I mean, where exactly are you going to put it when you're done?"

"Dad does it too," he frowned slightly, taking another drag of cigarette and blowing the smoke out of his window, through which he had his arm now. I followed this by grabbing the can of air freshener - which mom always conveniently brought and left in our rooms for us - and spraying it round.

"Yeah but dad isn't 14 Zack." I retorted then as his frown deepened and he opened his mouth to say or yell something at me I held my hands up to him. "But it's whatever. If you wanna do it and run the risk of not even seeing our prom go ahead."

"This is the first time I've smoked in the house," he sighed. "Usually I wait till mom and dad are asleep and go sit on the porch."

I nodded. That explained why I heard him getting up in the night. "Just...look...whatever. Talk to dad iunno. He's hid it from mom for years, he'll be able to help you."

"Will you tell him with me?" Zack now asked quietly. I sighed and nodded. Like I said, I wasn't bothered he smoked I was just bothered about what would happen when the 'rents found out. And not just any 'rent, our mom.