Cambridge opened the door and we walked inside the garage. A guy that was dressed similarly to myself was laying, face down, on a mattress that was lying on the floor of the large room. He had long, blonde hair, like mine. His left hand was falling over the side of the mattress. A cigarette was gripped between his middle and index fingers. I wasn’t sure whether he was awake or not at first.
I took in the sight of the garage. There was one regular window that opened and closed, and a row of glass plates in the mechanical garage door. There were curtains on all of them. There was another room separate from the large one, and in one corner there was a utility sink, with two deep basins. There was an oven and a dishwasher too.
At the sound of the door opening, the guy turned his head to look at us. He immediately jumped up and ran over to Cambridge.
“Cambridge!” he exclaimed. “Where have you been? I was worried about you.”
His cigarette had fallen, forgotten onto the carpet. He pulled away and picked it up. He placed it in the ashtray on a bedside table, also inhabited by a CD player and a rack of CD’s.
He ground the ash into the carpet and then went back to Cambridge, putting his hands on the sides of her face, and kissing her.
I decided that leaving would probably be a good idea, and walked out the door, shutting it quietly behind me.
“Damn you, Brandon!” I screamed at my twin. “Give it back!”
“No!”
“Yes!
“I don’t think so.” He walked out of my room, still holding my journal high above his head.
“You bastard! Come back here!”
I ran after him and tackled him to the ground, taking the small volume back. Just as I was about to get off of my brother, Jay walked out of his room into the hall. “Incest,” he muttered.
I just rolled off of Brandon and retreated into my room, not bothering to set the pervert straight. He wouldn’t tell anyone anyhow, and even if he did, no one would believe him.
I took the spoon back to my mouth once again. I was on my third bowl of strawberry ice cream. My brother, Isaac, walked into the kitchen. “Tay?”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” he asked gently, putting his hand on my shoulder.
“No.”
Look, Tay. I know you’re upset about Marie, but that’s no reason to do this to yourself. I mean, look at this!”
He picked up the box and pointed to the nutrition facts.
“There’s three point five grams of fat in half a cup of this stuff. You’ve had about six of those, with three bowls that size!”
“Since when do you obsess about fat grams? And I’m thin as can be. Go tell Zac about the fat content of his beloved twinkies. He’s fat! Not me!”
“Taylor! Don’t call Zac fat! He’s not. It’s the shape of his body. And anyway, he’s probably healthier than you. I mean, you’re gonna die, a skinny assed nineteen year old, because you’re gonna die of a drug overdose!”
“Isaac! I don’t use! You know that!”
“You think I know that. But I know the truth. I was looking through your boxer drawer for some clean boxers I could borrow, and I found this!”
Isaac whipped out a baggie, filled with something that looked like crumpled up, dried out, leaves.
“You were gonna borrow my boxers ?!”
“Yes, Taylor. I was going to borrow your boxers ! Your underwear ! Your undergarments ! I was going to wear them!”
I raised my upper lip a little bit at the left side, in a look filled with disgust. “Never, and I mean never, wear my boxers, Ike.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t want you to, dumbass!” I slapped him upside the head at his apparent stupidity.
“Don’t change the subject!”
“That’s not mine.” I explained bluntly.
“Yeah, right. Who would put their pot in your boxer drawer other than you?”
“Zac.”
“No he wouldn’t, you dumbass!”
“Yes he would! He did!”
“No he wouldn’t!”
“Would!”
“Would not!”
“Would!”
“Would not!
“Would!”
“Would not!”
“Would!”
“Would not!”
“Would!”
“Would not!”
“Would!”
“Would not!”
“Yes he would! He did! He put that pot in my boxer drawer! He must have! I didn't! Either that, or you did it!”
“I did not!”
“Mom! Ike smokes pot! He’s a pot addict! He smokes pot!”
At this point, Ike jumped forward and wrapped his hands around my throat.
“Help! Mom! Ike’s killing me! He’s high! He’s on pot! He’s being violent! Help! Help! Save me!”
I stood up and stretched. I was somewhat cramped up from the events of the last three hours. I was also somewhat confused as to why it had taken so long. I didn’t think it would be that long. I looked down at Cate. It looked like she was much worse off than I was. She stood up too, then, stretching out, groaned in pain.
“Are you okay?” I asked. Cate cramped up easily. That was why she did sprinting in track, she couldn’t take long endurance running. But she was really fast before she cramped up. It had been the first time for both of us, neither had been used to being in that position for that long.
“I’m fine Zac.”
“I didn’t think it would take that long.”
“Neither did I.”
“I liked it, though.”
“I thought it was okay.”
“Wanna do it again tomorrow?”
“I don’t think so. To tell the truth, I don’t know what people see in it. I really didn’t like it all that much.”
“I didn’t either, but I thought it was just because I was the guy. You know, the girls are the ones you cry and junk all the way through it. I thought that meant you guys liked it more.”
“And how would you know that? Have you been doing this with other girls behind my back?” she asked, jokingly.
“No, but Tay told me what Marie did, you know, when they were still together.”
“Oh.”
“Wanna do something else tomorrow?”
“We could go see ‘The Wedding Singer’ instead.” she suggested.
“Yeah, I think that might be a better idea. I don’t think I’m gonna sit still for that long again anytime too soon. Even if it is Titanic.”
“Yeah, I don’t really want to see it again too soon either. I thought Winslit could have done better.”
Isaac was still strangling me when I heard the familiar creak of the front door opening. “Mom!” I screamed, hoping it was her. “Dad!” I called in hope.
Zac ran into the room, Caty, the girl he was dating, right behind him. “Isaac!” he excaimed. Then jumped onto Isaac’s back and tried to pry him off of me.
Soon, with Caty’s help, he pulled Ike away from me.
He had a chance to calm down while the two twelve year olds pinned him to the ground. I caught my breathe.
It was about an hour after Caty and I had rescued Taylor from Isaac. Now we were all sitting around, minus Isaac and Caty, drinking hot cocoa. Isaac had gone back up stairs right after the fight had broken up and Caty had gone home about fifteen minutes ago.
Dad walked into the room and requested,” Kids? The hoodlums across the street are having a wild party on the roof. Could you go tell them to keep it down?”
Chapter Five
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