Chapter 5

Paul’s eyes opened. He was in his bed, very tired and his whole body hurting. He felt slightly disoriented, but when he was about to rise, he suddenly felt a body next to him.

“Aaaahhh!!” he cried in alarm. A blonde mane moved and his sister’s face filled his field of vision.

“Paul, it’s ok, you’re safe!” she said, hugging him. “You’re safe,” she cooed. “It’s just me, Emily.”

“Emily?” he thought, still confused. One moment later, he remembered what had happened ... hours before? There was still daylight outside, so it had not been long.

“Honey,” he heard. Turning his head, he saw his mother’s face, looking at him in alarm.

“Are you ok?” she asked.

“What are you doing here?”

“We came for you. I know you don’t believe us, but you’re wrong. We’re your family, we love you and we need you with us.”

“Yeah, right.” He said. “As you can see, I’m still fat, still ugly and still an nerd. Why would you want me?”

“Paul, please.” he heard Emily’s voice. “I know we hurt you badly, but we have changed. I have changed. Give us a chance to right the wrong we did you.”

He was tired and his body was hurting. He felt as if he had finished a boxing match.

“Look, right now I don’t want to think or talk. I need to rest, please go.”

“It’s ok son, we will let you rest.” With those words, Emily and Martha left the room. Paul’s head fell on the pillow and was out within seconds.

When Paul had told them to leave he had meant from his home, but Martha chose to misunderstand it as just leaving his bedroom.

“Will he be ok, mom?” asked Emily.

“It was a lot of emotions in a very short time,” she explained. “Now his body needs to recover from the adrenaline rush. He will sleep a few more hours, I hope we will be able to talk then.”

“Do you think he will forgive us?”

“I don’t know, Em. I don’t know.”

She would have liked to get professional advice, but not only she was in a strange city but the particular nature of their relationship precluded them from seeking a counselor or a psychologist. She would have to play it by ear and hope for the best.

Paul woke up again, this time thanks to his bladder. He checked his phone and saw it was still Friday afternoon. This time he felt a bit less ill, so he stood up in silence to go to the bathroom. The door was ajar though, and heard the women talking in the living room. He opened the door quietly and started to listen.

“ ... so I told him that Shirley had a crush on him. At that time he was so used to being the target of our pranks that he didn’t believe me. I dared him to ask her out, to prove that he had balls. He did it, and Shirley shot him down, bad. Later that day the whole school knew about it. When he came home he didn’t say a thing, just looked at me. And I laughed, too.”

“And I knew nothing about this.” his mom said. “Why are you telling me this after so many years?”

“At that time it was just another prank, nothing of significance. And when he left I was too ashamed to tell anybody about it being my idea. But now, when I saw him crying like that...” She started to sob. “Mom, I was evil. Not just a bitch, I was evil. He’s my brother, and I enjoyed being evil to him,” Emily sobbed.

Paul sat on the floor next to the door. He remembered the laughs, the humiliation, but mainly his sister’s laugh when he arrived home. He had arrived late and tired after the long walk, because he had missed the school bus and his brother and sister were too cool to wait for him to ride home together in his brother’s car. He kept listening.

“I always knew Mark and you were especially close, being twins,” said Martha. “But I never realized that both of you were so distant from Paul. I always thought it was just normal siblings rivalry.” continued Tina. “I mean, John and I were always fighting when we were younger, but then we grew up and we became closer. I’d say we’re now closer and love each other more than most brothers and sisters.”

“When did that happen?” asked Emily, venturing a smile.

“When we were about sixteen,” Tina smiled back. “It was just af...” -suddenly her expression changed- “just after we started to have sex.”

“Oh, mom.” said Emily, forlorn.

Paul thought back to that time in his life. He was impatient to join the circle, not only because of the sex -he was a horny, hormonal teenager, after all- but because he wanted to become a part of the whole. It was hard for him to be the fat boy in a family of beautiful people, but he just knew that, when he proved that he was able to satisfy his female relatives, his cousins and siblings would include him in their fun outings, invite him to their parties, introduce him to their pretty female friends. His dream, to be seen as an equal, not as “Tubby”, his hated nickname.