Chapter 9
Matt
I’m used to being alone. People don’t gravitate toward the ugly guy who’s big enough to crush them unless they want something from him. I haven’t made any friends in the last few weeks of school, but that doesn't particularly bother me. The teachers are fine, talking heads that relay sometimes-interesting information, but I even intimidate them a little. I have noticed a few things since I learned of non-humans and have come to an intriguing conclusion. My school doesn’t have a lot of them, but a few non-humans attend here, and I’ve noticed them because they have the same kind of aura that Deejay has, that my dad’s girlfriend had, that all the non-humans I’ve met have. Even my brother has it, which makes sense why he fits in so well with the Aquino’s. At some point in the next few months, he’s going to be an Aquino himself. I haven’t talked to Deejay about it yet, but I’ve noticed there are a lot more of those kinds of auras here than back home.
I think that the sparkle of the aura indicates non-human versus human. It makes a lot more sense than the bullshit my dad fed me about the sparklers being easy targets for sexual conquest. Not that he was wrong about that, he was simply wrong about why they sparkled. In my experience, non-humans, the people with sparkly auras, are actually pretty easy to get naked, but I didn’t know they were non-humans until recently; I just thought the old man had it right.
As I categorize my classmates in the cafeteria during lunch, to my surprise, I discover that the kid who tried to get in a fight with me is back in school. I thought the principal suspended him for two weeks, but he’s here, staring hard at me, and it’s only been seven days. Normally I wouldn’t be bothered about it, but I don’t want to get sucker punched again, so I keep him in my line of sight. His name is Darius and he’s a prick. I don’t know why that girl decided to date him, but she changed her mind after getting pushed. At this point, the guy is persona non grata among our peers because the kids in this school do not put up with shit. They’re all wealthy and worldly, but the student’s overall attitude toward inequality and violence is pretty negative. They don’t really get it because they haven’t ever suffered from real-world abuse, but I can still appreciate their sympathy for those who have.
Although I’ve eaten lunch alone since I started here, today a group of three girls, including the one who set Darius off, startle me by sitting at my table. “Hey, Matt, how’re you?”
Bethany, the Darius-ex, asks like she pities me.
“Peachy,”
I answer, furrowing my eyebrows. I don’t think I deserve some random rich chick’s pity, but this is how these kids are.
“We heard Darius wants to get revenge,”
one of the other girls says in the same tone Bethany took. This one has that non-human aura around her, but it’s far more sparkly than anything I’ve seen from Deejay or the boys.
I snort at the idea that Darius thinks he can challenge me. “Pretty sure I didn’t do jack shit to that guy.”
“He’s an idiot.”
I don’t know the name of the girl who says this, but she also has the non-human aura, not as sparkly as her friend’s, rather much more intense. It’s fucking alluring. “Matt would crush him like the insignificant bug he is if he started something again. Bethany told me you’re one of the Aquino kids, right?”
“My late father’s girlfriend is one of Deejay’s sisters,”
I explain with a shrug. At this point I'm pretty used to the popularity of the Aquino boys; they are attractive, even if they’re middle schoolers. Every day when I pick them up from school, people surround them, vying for their attention.
“I met Deejay two years ago at this, like, country club thing. That guy is so scary. He and my dad were just talking, and it looked like my dad was going to, like, throw up.”
This information comes from the super sparkly girl—a bit of a ditz, this one.
“What’s up with that?”
Bethany asks curiously. “What’s so scary about him? I’ve never seen him, obviously, but my sister has a huge crush on Kendall and Colt.”
I feel like an interloper at my own table. I didn’t ask for these girls’ company, and now I don’t even want to be here. I don’t care about middle school crushes, or how scary other people perceive Deejay. I know he’s scary; I’ve seen him in action. I know better than anyone at this table how fucking attractive everyone else in my family is. Even the babies are cuter than average. I just don’t care because behind all that allure are just some boys who bicker, fight, cry, play video games, and sometimes do some weird shit. Like answer thoughts in my head if I’m sitting too close to Kendall, or wake up at night if Colt dreams that Cary is going to throw up before Cary actually vomits.
Saves the sheets.
“—like?”
The girl with the problem speaking in sentences that don’t include ‘like’ as a filler touches my arm, looking up at me expectantly.
“What?”
I grunt. “I tuned out.”
Bethany laughs and the girl with the alluring aura joins her while the sparkly girl pouts at me. “I just asked what it's—like—like living with Kendall and Colt.”
I squint at her and then look at the other girl. “Is it weird that she’s asking about thirteen-year-old’s like they’re on her dating radar?”
The girl shrugs. “Not really. She’d do pretty much anyone who offered.”
I’m a guy. The thought briefly crosses my mind, but I’m not an idiot; it flies away as quickly as it lands.
“I see.”
I turn back to the girl, who is smiling up at me like her friend telling me she’d fuck me doesn’t bother her. “It’s like living with two middle school boys. They argue, they play, they do their homework, and on the weekends, they spend most of the day avoiding chores.”
“Aww, how cute. Maybe I’ll tell my sister to invite them over next weekend. They can avoid chores with us!”
“Seriously Chloe, that’s gross. Leave the middle schoolers alone.”
The alluring girl smacks Chloe on the shoulder before turning back to me. “I’m Helena, but everyone calls me Hel. That Succubus is Chloe—she really will do anyone, so don’t let your—step-cousins? —go near her house.”
Ah, the sparkly aura belongs to a Succubus. Interesting.
“And sorry about the trouble with Darius,”
Bethany adds.
“It’s not like it’s your fault. Darius’ actions are his own. Fuck him,”
I shrug as the warning bell chimes through the school. “If you don’t feel safe, though, I’ll escort you to class.”
Darius might have spent his lunch period shooting daggers at me, but he hasn’t ignored Bethany either. I don’t think she’s in danger, but I also think it’s better safe than sorry.
Bethany smiles up at me. “That would be great.”
Hel gives me half a smile and shakes her head. “You’re pretty protective, aren't you?”
I frown at myself. “I’ve got reason to be.”
“Nah, I think it’s just the nature of the beast inside, you know?”
she chuckles before grabbing Chloe. “Let’s go, bitch. Bethany’s got herself an escort today.”
“Bye guys!”
Chloe waves as Hel drags her away.
I stand up grabbing mine and Bethany’s trays, and take them to the bins. When I’m done with that Bethany puts her hand through my arm, holding my elbow like I really am her personal escort. It’s weird, but I don’t mind. We get a lot of stares as she chats at me about whatever—I don’t pay attention. Then I drop her off at her class and make my way to mine, barely getting in my seat before the bell.
After school, I pick up the other boys from their schools, getting Jasper first. He sits in his booster, quieter than usual. Normally he chats with me about his day, the things he liked doing, and schoolyard gossip.
“What’s up, Jazz? Something happen today?”
I ask before I even put the car into gear.
For a few seconds he remains quiet. I turn in time to see him wipe tears off his face. “Bennington and Lilith won’t play with me anymore because they said I talk about Cary too much.”
“Really? That’s dumb. Anyone who gets a new brother would be excited. You don’t have to play with kids who don’t get how cool being a big brother is. Plus, if you start having fun with other friends, maybe they’ll want to have fun with you again too. Whenever Cary doesn’t want to play with me, I just start playing on my own and then he gets interested and joins me. It’s an easy trick to get your friends to play with you.”
Jasper looks up at me, awed by my advice. “I’ll do that tomorrow!”
I nod and put the car in gear, heading to the middle school to grab Kendall and Colt.
When Kendall and Colt spot me as I pull into the pick-up lane, I raise a brow at the harem of girls that always surround them. Now that I know there’s at least one succubus in that group, I feel the need to get protective even though I know she won’t mature into her powers for a few more years. Not that I have the right to get protective; I wasn’t exactly a late bloomer, stealing my dad’s condoms before Cary was born—huh, maybe that’s why Cary was born…never thought about that before.
And it bears never thinking of again.
Colt reaches for the front passenger door, gets a smack upside the head by Kendall, and immediately moves to the back door, leaving Kendall to take shotgun. “He forgot he sat shotgun yesterday,”
Kendall explains, pushing his glasses up his nose.
“I see.”
Their strange relationship doesn’t bother Deejay, and Colt never complains, so I don’t comment on the hitting. “One of those girls is a Succubus, by the way. Her sister gave me an earful today.”
That’s the limit of what I am willing to say.
“We know,”
Colt grunts from the back. And that’s the limit of what he’s willing to say.
Thank fuck I don’t have to elaborate and he doesn’t want to. Hopefully, they’ve already had the sex-talk from Deejay or at the very least Sex Ed from their school.
The drive home is peppered with Jasper and Colt’s conversation from the backseat. When we get back, those three head off to get their homework going and probably snacks. I am drawn to the living room, where I can hear Cary talking with someone I don’t know. As I turn into the doorway, I find Cary sitting on the floor with a little guy that I mistake at first for a middle schooler. “Who’re you?”
I ask, wondering what a stranger is doing playing with Cary.
As soon as he turns around, I see that he’s much closer to my age. Short and skinny, he looks like he could use about a year’s worth of good meals and some strength training, and then he looks utterly terrified. I have that effect on people, so I don’t take it personally. He’ll get the chance to get to know me if he’s one of Deejay’s nephews, which is the only explanation for why Deejay left Cary to play with him totally unsupervised. Cary pops up and launches himself at me, so I pick him up and kiss his cheek, accepting a kiss in return.
“This is Robbie. He’s our new brother!”
Cary exclaims happily.
I study the guy. He has the same kind of aura that Deejay and co. have, and is unsurprisingly beautiful for a guy, though he does hide it behind thick-rimmed glasses.
“R-Robert J-Julien. My stepmom d-dropped me off earlier. Cary said he c-came here y-yesterday?”
He sounds like he wants to run as fast and as far away from me as possible and I’m holding the cutest little guy in the world, so that’s some serious aversion fear there. Usually holding Cary gives me some social brownie points.
“Deejay’s sister dropped us off three weeks ago,”
I correct, knowing for Cary everything that’s ever happened, happened ‘yesterday’. “Matt Blank. I’m Cary’s brother.”
“Oh, um. N-Nice to meet you,”
he stutters, managing to hold out his hand.
I take it delicately and try to keep my touch light so as to not scare the poor guy off now that we’re making progress. Maybe a little personal information can help ease the way for him. “Yeah, my old man wasn’t sure if I was his kid when I was born and refused to let me have his last name until he knew for sure. He told my mom to leave it blank, so she wrote Blank on there. I continued the tradition with Cary.”
I give him my best approximation of a teasing smile, but he doesn’t respond with anything more than a neutral mask, so I move on. “Where’s Deejay?”
I ask, getting a weird feeling from touching him, so I take my hand back, wiping it on my trousers.
Although I have little experience with the feeling, Robert sort of creeps me out, but he also makes me want to follow him wherever he goes. It feels weird for a guy who I just met to have that kind of allure on me, but I chalk it up to whatever superpower he’s got going on with that aura he’s hauling around. Overall, his sparkly aura makes me aware that he has a generally good soul, maybe one of the best I’ve ever met, but he lives with a lot of fear and anxiety. I could delve deeper, but that’s quite the invasion of privacy, and I prefer not to do that.
“I d-don’t know. He told me to wait here for s-snacks, but I haven’t seen him since,”
he says nervously.
I look over at the coffee table where Deejay has placed off a platter of finger sandwiches, madeleines, and carrots and celery.
“Looks like he dropped off the snacks while you weren’t paying attention.”
I try for teasing but fail again based on his non-reaction.
“Snacks!!”
Cary exclaims, squirming out of my arms to make a run for the food.
I follow him, pulling up a seat on the squeaky metal futon Deejay has for a couch. “He’s probably with the twins.”
Robert cautiously lowers himself to his haunches on the opposite side of the table like he’s ready to bolt at the drop of a hat. “Um, how—how many people live here?”
“With you, it’ll be nine, though as I understand it, there’s a couple of brothers in college who’ll come back during the breaks. Their rooms are still full of their stuff. But you don’t need to worry, this place has twelve bedrooms and most of the kids bunk together, so there’s still plenty of rooms to choose from.”
I pour three cups of the Tang mix that Deejay set out for us.
“I sleep with Jasper,”
Cary announces before biting into a finger sandwich.
I put Cary’s cup in front of him, nodding. “Jasper is six, then there’s Kendall and Colt. They’re thirteen and they also share a room. They aren’t biological brothers. Alex and Eren are the twins, they’re six months old; Deejay brought them home from the hospital.”
“How old are you?”
Robert asks, settling a little more, not quite the nervous rabbit he projected upon seeing me.
“I’ll be eighteen in two Saturdays,”
I reply—ten days, not that it matters. “You?”
“Eighteen today,”
he mumbles, looking away like it embarrasses him or something.
Everyone here was abandoned by their parents, just because the law happens to consider him a legal adult as of today, does not mean he was ready for this shit.
“At least she gave you a soft landing when she kicked you out,”
I grunt because I can’t think of anything worse than this for a birthday gift—what a bitch.
“I don’t know if I’m even staying,”
he whispers, doing his impersonation of a nervous rabbit again.
“Deejay won’t let you go easily. He’s really devoted to family. Well, to his nephews, anyway,”
I assure him, though I’m not sure if he knows why he’s been kicked out, since I sure didn’t. “Are you aware that they’re Naiads?”
“Yes. I have a sister, Lily, she’s eight,”
he nods, placing a hand over his heart, rubbing at the heartache. I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose Cary, and I don’t want to.
“That sucks, man. These fucking Naiads have no heart for boys,”
I growl, angry for him.
“We don’t say ‘fucking’,”
Cary tells me with a very Deejay-ish head shake.
“Children don’t say ‘fucking’; adults can say whatever they want. Got it?”
I correct. Deejay cusses too, and we’re on the same page about it, not censoring ourselves, rather teaching the littles their own limits.
“Got it!”
Cary agrees with the aplomb of a four-year-old. I’m unsurprised by his response because Cary trusts me completely. For him, my word is law, and I’ve encouraged that attitude his entire life.
“Anyway, we’ll probably just do the introductions at dinner.”
I turn my attention back to Robert. “Deejay’s pretty busy with the younger kids until bedtime, so let’s go pick out your bedroom. You got luggage or anything?”
I stand up and Robert immediately hops to his feet too, taking a couple steps back.
“No. I wasn’t allowed to bring anything but my wallet and paperwork,”
he mumbles. This guy has a problem with speaking clearly, which makes me think that it’s not just a me-problem that’s going on here.
“Follow me, you can choose your bedroom from the ones we have open, then we can go supply shopping.”
I lead him and Cary up to the second floor where most of the bedrooms are. “If there’s a nameplate, it’s taken,”
I explain, stopping by my door, the first in the hall closest to the staircase, pointing to the wooden nameplate Deejay gave me the third day after we arrived. “This is me. Go check out which one you want. They’re all basically identical except the view.”
He slides past me as far from me as he can get. I watch him walk down the hall, fists balled and shaking. He opens the first unclaimed room he finds, glances in and then walks in. Cary and I follow him as far as the door. He’s got the window open already, breathing deep and fast. He will hyperventilate doing that, which makes me frown in concern.
“You ok?”
I ask, startling him.
He spins in a panic before taking another deep breath. “I’m fine,”
he squeaks, clearly not at all ok. Red and indigo pierce through his generally yellow-green aura, indicating he may be experiencing a panic attack, though I am far from an expert on reading auras. I really ought to put more effort in. Maybe I’ll make that my next project after I get the non-human information memorized.
“You don’t look ok. If there’s a problem, you can tell me or Deejay,”
I try to assure him. This isn’t my forte though, and I really think this is something Deejay may need to deal with before the poor guy faints or something.
He nods silently. I wait to see if he has anything more to say, but he keeps getting more nervous with every passing second, so I make the decision to just go.
“I’m going to go find Deejay,”
I tell him, holding out my hand to Cary. “Come on, buddy.”
Cary takes my hand and I walk him to his shared room with Jasper, knocking on the door before opening it. “Stay in your room for a while. We got a new nephew, but I need to talk to Deejay about him before we introduce him to the rest of you,”
I tell Jasper.
Jasper looks up from his homework, nodding. “Sure. What’s his name? How old is he?”
I smile at the curiosity of the very young and give him what vital statistics I know about the guy before heading off to find Deejay.