Triplets
Gabriel
"What do you think?" Andy asked as I opened the file that he had sent me.
"Is that it? Dude, she's wearing a bra," I scoffed.
"Don't be a dick, Gabe."
I rolled my eyes and fixed my headset slightly. He was such an amateur with finding pictures that even my mum could find better pictures than he could. "Did you even watch the disc I gave you?" I asked, typing in a new address into the search bar.
He coughed in a way that I knew he was faking, a signal that he couldn't talk about it right at that moment because someone was there that he couldn't speak in front of, although it was probably his mum because he tended to just speak around the subject while still answering me if it was anyone else. There was a bit of shuffling down the line before he spoke. "Ma, get out my room," he said, his voice slightly fainter than before as he'd moved his microphone away from his mouth.
"I want your washing, Andy. You better have changed your underwear today," she replied, followed by more shuffling down the line. I had to keep my laughter in because I didn't want to alert her to it being me on the otherside of the headset, although she might not even think that there's someone down the other end because Andy likes to wear it when we're not even talking to each other, and trust me when I say there's no one else he would have to use the headset with.
The noise became distorted so I moved my headset to around my neck and had just opened a new tab on my browser when there was a knock on my door and my dad poked his head in. "Hey, Gabe. We need to talk," he said before coming into the room and closing the door behind him.
As discreetly as I could, I closed the previous tabs that were up on my browser and just kept the one that I'd just opened. "What's up?"
"We're heading back out at the end of the month, but this time to China for three weeks. You want to come with us?"
"Hell yes!" I exclaimed.
When we last visited China, I didn't keep my excitement of going there to myself and the whole time we were on the aeroplane heading there, I kept verbalising the list of things I wanted to do while there. I knew I was privileged to travel with my parents but I'd never trade their life for parents that stayed at home and worried about whether their child was doing alright at school, both mentally and physically. We didn't touch upon mental aspect in my family and I was perfectly okay with that.
My dad cleared his throat. "After this, we need to sit down together as a family and discuss what's going to happen next. Both your mother and I have discussed about enrolling you into school here on a permanent basis and you living with your Aunt – yes, Gabe, I know we've had this discussion before, but you're sixteen now and we're not sure whether this will affect your chances of attending the college of your choice."
The happiness I felt over going back to China wasn't even extinguished by all this talk of going to school on a permanent basis. I knew I would have to argue my case furiously, but I won last time so I have every confidence that I will win again whenever the conversation happens. And besides, I can even use the countries we've visited in my argument because some of them have universities that I've looked up and have thought about as well – not that I really wanted to go to university, of course, but I knew I had to. "Can we not talk about this right now because China is happening and I need to find everything that I have documented of China on the previous visit and how long have you known about China?" I asked, more as a way of interrogating him into revealing how long both he and Mum had been keeping this secret from me.
He just chuckled. "We were going to tell you as a birthday present but we decided to wait instead," he admitted and I couldn't help but stare at him in outrage.
"Since March?! You've known about China since March and you haven't told me? This is betrayal right here. I can't believe you two would do this to me," I ranted.
All I got was laughed at before my dad said goodbye and left the room. I was still reeling from the news that they had known about China since March when I bought the headset back to my ears. "Andy?"
"Took you long enough," he muttered.
I shook my head and reopened my closed tabs, shaking off the news about China so that I could focus on what I was doing. There was no point getting excited about it right now as we weren't leaving for a while and the rest of the month would drag if I started thinking about it took much right now. Plus, with us not leaving until the end of the month, it gives me plenty of time to rub it in Andy's face like I did every time I got to go somewhere and he was left alone at school. It was something I always did to him and he just has to take it if he wants something valuable to come home with me like I get him everytime I go somewhere.
Finding the right link, I right clicked and copied it. "So the disc, did you watch it?"
"Nah, not yet. I tried the other day but Katrina came over and wanted to watch it with me, thinking it was a chick flick or some shit like that so I had to hide it."
"Bullshit," I muttered. "Anyway, I'm sending you a picture through right now. This is what I'm on about when we do shit like this, Andy."
"Yeah, fuck you too, Gabriel."
"Is that it? Dude, she's wearing a bra," I scoffed.
"Don't be a dick, Gabe."
I rolled my eyes and fixed my headset slightly. He was such an amateur with finding pictures that even my mum could find better pictures than he could. "Did you even watch the disc I gave you?" I asked, typing in a new address into the search bar.
He coughed in a way that I knew he was faking, a signal that he couldn't talk about it right at that moment because someone was there that he couldn't speak in front of, although it was probably his mum because he tended to just speak around the subject while still answering me if it was anyone else. There was a bit of shuffling down the line before he spoke. "Ma, get out my room," he said, his voice slightly fainter than before as he'd moved his microphone away from his mouth.
"I want your washing, Andy. You better have changed your underwear today," she replied, followed by more shuffling down the line. I had to keep my laughter in because I didn't want to alert her to it being me on the otherside of the headset, although she might not even think that there's someone down the other end because Andy likes to wear it when we're not even talking to each other, and trust me when I say there's no one else he would have to use the headset with.
The noise became distorted so I moved my headset to around my neck and had just opened a new tab on my browser when there was a knock on my door and my dad poked his head in. "Hey, Gabe. We need to talk," he said before coming into the room and closing the door behind him.
As discreetly as I could, I closed the previous tabs that were up on my browser and just kept the one that I'd just opened. "What's up?"
"We're heading back out at the end of the month, but this time to China for three weeks. You want to come with us?"
"Hell yes!" I exclaimed.
When we last visited China, I didn't keep my excitement of going there to myself and the whole time we were on the aeroplane heading there, I kept verbalising the list of things I wanted to do while there. I knew I was privileged to travel with my parents but I'd never trade their life for parents that stayed at home and worried about whether their child was doing alright at school, both mentally and physically. We didn't touch upon mental aspect in my family and I was perfectly okay with that.
My dad cleared his throat. "After this, we need to sit down together as a family and discuss what's going to happen next. Both your mother and I have discussed about enrolling you into school here on a permanent basis and you living with your Aunt – yes, Gabe, I know we've had this discussion before, but you're sixteen now and we're not sure whether this will affect your chances of attending the college of your choice."
The happiness I felt over going back to China wasn't even extinguished by all this talk of going to school on a permanent basis. I knew I would have to argue my case furiously, but I won last time so I have every confidence that I will win again whenever the conversation happens. And besides, I can even use the countries we've visited in my argument because some of them have universities that I've looked up and have thought about as well – not that I really wanted to go to university, of course, but I knew I had to. "Can we not talk about this right now because China is happening and I need to find everything that I have documented of China on the previous visit and how long have you known about China?" I asked, more as a way of interrogating him into revealing how long both he and Mum had been keeping this secret from me.
He just chuckled. "We were going to tell you as a birthday present but we decided to wait instead," he admitted and I couldn't help but stare at him in outrage.
"Since March?! You've known about China since March and you haven't told me? This is betrayal right here. I can't believe you two would do this to me," I ranted.
All I got was laughed at before my dad said goodbye and left the room. I was still reeling from the news that they had known about China since March when I bought the headset back to my ears. "Andy?"
"Took you long enough," he muttered.
I shook my head and reopened my closed tabs, shaking off the news about China so that I could focus on what I was doing. There was no point getting excited about it right now as we weren't leaving for a while and the rest of the month would drag if I started thinking about it took much right now. Plus, with us not leaving until the end of the month, it gives me plenty of time to rub it in Andy's face like I did every time I got to go somewhere and he was left alone at school. It was something I always did to him and he just has to take it if he wants something valuable to come home with me like I get him everytime I go somewhere.
Finding the right link, I right clicked and copied it. "So the disc, did you watch it?"
"Nah, not yet. I tried the other day but Katrina came over and wanted to watch it with me, thinking it was a chick flick or some shit like that so I had to hide it."
"Bullshit," I muttered. "Anyway, I'm sending you a picture through right now. This is what I'm on about when we do shit like this, Andy."
"Yeah, fuck you too, Gabriel."