Chapter 14

My bedroom was a couple of degrees warmer than the box. It was almost stifling. I tried kicking away my comforter, pleading for a breeze to sweep in from my open window. I woke up feeling sweaty and gross. I stretched and swung my legs out of my bed. My door flung inward. Zoë rushed into my room.

“What’s going on, honey?” Dad’s voice chased my sister into the room.

“I, uh, I didn’t do my homework and Dean did. I gotta copy it before I go to class,” She announced and closed the door. Brazen. I could only imagine dad was fuming at that admission. Zoë was more than 95% smirk. She counted down from five with her fingers. It was a seven count that she had needed. Dad’s hand knocked on my door.

“Zoë, you’re legally an adult, it’s time to grow up a little, please,” And so we expected him to wander off. A moment later, he continued, “Your mom and I’ll be out for the evening, we probably won’t see you until tomorrow.”

“Bye daddy!” Zoë declared. She had this one voice she used to get what she wanted out of Dad. It bothered me like usual. His slippers moved down the hallway as Zoë rushed over to my bed and hopped onto it.

Zoë and I are twins and we look it. Same medium brown hair, same complexion, same shape to our faces, though her jaw is a bit more smooth curved like a girls and mine isn’t. I hoped. She was about 5’4’’ and slender. I was about 5’11’’ and also slender. She looked girly; I looked weak. She was wearing her sleepwear, a boring pair of dream-room-blue panties and a draping loose Supergirl t-shirt. Her collar hung pretty far off her left side, another half inch and her shoulder would be sticking out of it.

I had scrambled back under my covers. I was wearing boxers and had needed a morning piss so hard that I was up periscope though the front breach. I pulled my comforter up higher despite the warmth.

“How was it? Did you find anything?” She gripped the hem of her shirt and her knuckles were whitening.

“A way out,” I nodded, “But I have no idea if it’s safe though, and--”

“Where?” Her eyes beamed wide. She was smiling like I hadn’t seen since fifth grade Christmas. She had gotten a new bike and I hadn’t.

“You know the kitchen cabinets?” I gestured with the hand that wasn’t holding my blanket, “Left side of the table.”

“Right side,” Zoë corrected me.

“I judge left and right from the beds,” I explained.

“So do I,” She shook her head.

“Then maybe our rooms are mirrored,” I shrugged, “There’s some machine that pulls the bottom out and replaces it with refills every night.”

“Oh my God! They do refill!” She rubbed her hand on the neck as she thought, “And it sounds like it echoes down the wall a few times before I black out. I could probably fit in there too.”

“I fit in there with Pat,” I replied, thinking the ka-chunks of the machine seemed to come towards and past our room, “It wasn’t completely uncomfortable.”

“Pat? Trishie Pat?” Zoë raised an eyebrow. She cocked her lips evilly, “You fuck her yet?”

“Um,” I decided to counter that feeling of bravado in my guts, “No, still a virgin.”

“That’s not going to last long. Who’s in your room? Xiomara, Connie, Kia, Trishie and ... I think you mentioned Marin.”

“Yeah,” It was me and all girls. Hers it was 50/50, “Renée, Hannah, Suzi, and Andrea. Andrea Wen.”

“Dude the only other Andrea we know is like six,” She snorted, “I’d have made the right guess.”

“Yeah, I guess. Now get off my bed, I need to shower and pee,” I tried to turn off the far side of the bed and remain under the covers long enough to one handed fix my cock.

“How’s Hannah looking?” Zoë was walking backwards to my door as I hunched my shoulders and de-turtled the front of my boxers.

“Good, but the lack of makeup makes her feel really off,” I shrugged. Zoë was waiting in my open door. We heard the front door closing behind dad as we crossed by the top of the stairs.

“Mom!” Zoë shouted. There was no reply. She beamed.

“I guess she had to go in early,” I sighed. Zoë opened the washroom and entered before me.

“Zoë! I need to pee,” I pleaded.

“And I need to shower,” She retorted. She had been about to roll her eyes. Her cheeks flared red, “Oh my God! I can’t believe I need to get used to privacy again.” She exited her whisper into a giggle, “Pee quick. I stink.”

“Get out of the door,” She hurried aside as I rushed in.

“Don’t start or finish with Connie,” Zoë was counting on her fingers up until nine. I was laughing, it was all manipulative advice she was giving me as we headed out the door, “But don’t let her be second last, that’ll be the worst place to be on the list.”

“Not last?” I raised my eyebrow.

“No, you can save the best for last,” Zoë air quoted the word best. Kia was already at the bus stop. She waved to me and I waved back. Kia’s braces didn’t exist in the other world. She was dressed in a fluffy sweater and jeans. She didn’t play up her clothes out here like she did in there. It was a shame. I liked her long legs and her decent sized boobs. Her long blonde hair had a streak of green in it.

“Shut up,” I tried to derail my sister’s schemes, “Did Kia have that green in hair yesterday?”

“Yeah, for a few weeks now. Kia going to be your first?” Zoë poked me, “Cause Xiomara--”

“I thought I told you to shut up.” I said a fair bit louder.

“Telling sisters to shut up doesn’t work,” Kia warned me, now that we were in earshot. I crossed the street fast ahead of my sister. I grabbed Kia’s hands. She blushed when I kissed her.

“What was that for?” She rocked back onto her left heel. Her eyes were nervous.

“I’m excited for tonight,” I told myself. I couldn’t wait to get to sleep.

“It’s just the movies,” She worried.

“Movies with you,” I smiled. She smiled too.

“Um, OK,” Kia worried as Zoë caught up to us.

“You make sure you’re good enough for Dean,” Zoë warned Kia, “Or there’ll be hell to pay.”

“I’m--Shut up, Zoë,” Kia took her cue for me.

“I never shut up!” And the bus arrived. Zoë ditched us to meet Xiomara at the back. I was dragged along as arm candy to half-listen to a conversation with Laurie until we got to school. I hardly contributed. I smiled. My job was to be pretty.

“Hey, what do you girls do in the morning?” I asked Kia after watching Zoë scoff at Reggie a few buses down. My sister went out of her way to go to a different entrance than Reggie. Not that she usually headed over to our corner of the school. She normally just moved straight up the main entrance. Xiomara struggled to adjust to Zoë taking a hard left to the far entrance.

Reggie hadn’t noticed. I had no idea how to handle things and begged a way out through Kia. One look at the look on Zoë’s face and I wanted nothing to do with my best friend. I poked Kia’s shoulder. “Want some company?”

“Outside the science building, back exit,” Laurie answered, “It’s got that big eave so it’s fine even when it’s raining.”

“Can I join you?” I asked, needing a clear answer. Kia was excited and dragged me along. Hannah and Wanda, waiting for us, tolerated me. Laurie would’ve rathered I had sought out my own friends.

It was one thing to be quiet while a bunch of girls talked around you. I didn’t have much to say about whatever shows and people they were discussing. It was another thing to be silent, lost in another world. My memory frustrated me. I couldn’t picture the box with the same clarity I remembered remembering this world. I couldn’t picture the image Zoë had sold me of my best friend.

“Hey,” Hannah kneed me. Her worried frown, plastered black, and her raccoon eyes, were alien to the happy girl I had in the box, “Who shit in your corn flakes?”

“What?” Kia flashed dark eyes at Hannah before turning to me, “What’s wrong, Dean?”

“Oh, I’m just pissed at Reggie,” I shrugged, “I feel like a bit of a coward by avoiding him this morning.”

“What’d he do?” Kia rubbed my upper arm.

“He--” How could I explain it and be sane? “I haven’t talked to him about it yet. It wouldn’t be fair to start throwing it around behind his back.”

“You can tell me,” Kia assured me. There was a bit of peacocking to her stance. She seemed more familiar here and now, than she had in the morning when it was just the two of us, or the two of us and Zoë. I looked around. Laurie and Wanda seemed put upon by me intruding on this time with them. Hannah just seemed genuinely concerned. I turned back to Kia.

“Of course I can,” I nodded with a broad smile, “But, I really should talk to Reggie first. I’d want him to deal with me if he was angry at me.”

“You sure?” Kia wanted me to tell her. I reached over and squeezed her fingers. I smiled. I really smiled. She smiled. I wasn’t convinced.

“I’m going to go to my locker,” I stood up, figuring it was easier to leave than to retreat back into my roiling imagination, “I’ll see you later.”

“OK,” She stood up with me. I think she wanted me to kiss her again, in view of her friends, and I didn’t. It just seemed unnatural. I squeezed her fingers and smiled. I walked out. I still had about twelve minutes before the first bell. I thoughtlessly wandered. Cliques and groups of people were coagulated wherever there was a comfortable place to sit. I didn’t need to go to my locker. My first period books were in my backpack. I was just aimless.

“Hi Dean.”

“Hi Connie,” I smirked. The cheerleader was dressed well. She wasn’t as showy as the girls around her. She had the height and the confidence to stick out even in her form fitting sweater and knee length skirt. She wore flashy gold and blue sneakers.

“Big party tonight,” She reminded me, pointedly.

“Big date tonight,” I deflected.

“Keep it under your hat,” She turned on her heel with a smile, “And if it falls flat. Just think, Renée was hoping you’d make it.”

I answered that with a bright smile. I kept walking, turned the next corner. Andrea was at her locker. I looked around. I wasn’t in, around, or near any group that had Andrea in it. We shared on class and sat on opposite ends of the classroom. This little stretch of hall was mostly deserted. There was a single group of friends having staked out a hallway bench a ways away. No one I knew. No one I cared to know.

“Hey Andrea,” I said falling against the lockers near her. She turned her head. She was cute. Her dark hair was just like it was in the box. Her skin wasn’t too different, could you be too dark for freckles? Actually, I noticed after a good look, other than the earrings and maybe 5 lbs, she wasn’t much different in real life than in my dreams.

“Um, hi,” She said, “I’m seeing someone.”