Twenty-one
Eli
"B ring me that bottle of water,” my aunt demanded.
I had just arrived home from Alex and Killian’s place and I had my mind set on a nice longer shower.
Of course Aunt Macy had to give me a side quest before I could make myself comfortable.
She sprawled out on the couch and stuffing her face with chips as she watched a game show.
The water bottle that she wanted me to bring her was on the console table directly in front of her.
She was simply too lazy to reach over and grab it.
"Where were you?" Macy asked, her tone sharp and nasally.
"A friend's house."
I handed her the bottle with a neutral expression. She was munching on chili cheese chips as she snatched it from me, and I held back the urge to roll my eyes as I turned to walk away. If I wasn’t in her view, then she wouldn’t use me as her personal servant.
"Be useful and get me some more chips out of the pantry," she ordered, not bothering to swallow the food in her mouth before speaking.
I rolled my eyes since it was safe to do so because my back was toward her.
I quickly walked to the pantry and grabbed the only bag of chips left on the top shelf.
Once I brought it to her she took it from me without another word and I thought the interaction was over. However, she did a double take.
"What the hell is on your nails?" she asked, her tone laced with disgust.
Shit. I had forgotten I had even had nail polish on by the time I made it back home. I didn't want to take it off in front of Millie out of fear of her thinking I didn’t like it. I told myself that I would wipe it off as soon as I got home, but my aunt's orders made it slip my mind.
"Uh," I gulped. "I don’t know."
“Don’t play dumb with me, boy,” she barked, unsatisfied with my answer. "How long have you been wearing nail polish? Do you go around school like that?"
"I don't wear nail polish. I've had it on for a couple of hours and I'm about to take it off, I swear."
It seemed that my explanation only pissed her off further. "This is definitely something that you would do. You understand that you are a reflection of me, right? If my nephew is running around with colored nails, then I look like a bad guardian. I don’t need anyone getting the wrong idea."
I parted my lips to speak but couldn’t find anything worth saying.
“At least the twins are smart enough to not pull stunts like this. You get that hard-headedness from your daddy. It makes me sick that you take so much after him instead of your mother.”
My aunt hated my father. Everything I had ever heard about him was rude, degrading, and harmful because it all came from Macy’s mouth.
She hated him from when he and my mom first started dating and it only grew worse as time went on.
Aunt Macy was not upset when he passed four months after my mother’s death.
If anything, it probably made her feel in some twisted way that her sister got justice.
Macy’s whole thing was that if my mother did not get to live, then neither should my father. Though, she didn’t think about how their three offspring would become her new burden after becoming orphans.
“Stop talking about my dad,” I said, my tone low.
Her head cocked to the side and she took a step toward me. “You’re good for nothing father that corrupted your mother and created you three assholes? I’ll speak about the bastard all that I want.”
I wondered what stories I would hear about my dad had I lived with a family on his side. I had never met any of his family because my aunt kept my siblings and I isolated from them. She never gave us an explanation why other than that they were not good people. I never believed her.
“I’ve never worn nail polish before. I only have it on because…” I trailed off when I saw my aunt’s jaw clench and a vein begin to pop out of her forehead. “Never mind.”
“Go take that shit off,” Macy said through gritted teeth.
"I was already going to take it off."
"Are you talking back to me?"
I shook my head. "Of course not."
"That’s what I thought," she spat. "Now walk away."
She didn’t have to tell me twice to get away from her. There was no explaining myself to someone who didn't want to hear it.
Everything that I did was a problem and that would always be the case, so I stopped stressing over her bitching a long time ago. Nail polish was just paint on nails, it didn’t matter who it was on. Not everyone had that opinion, clearly.
I was sure to scrub it off the moment I could. The twins were not home so they didn't see, thankfully. I didn't know how they would have reacted, but I didn't imagine that it would be pleasant.
Once my nails were bare again, I rushed toward my bed and threw myself on top of it.
I had long ago stopped wishing that she would one day treat me the way aunts are supposed to treat their nephew’s, so I had done a good job of learning to let her words brush off me. Even so, they still stung sometimes.
I let my eyes wander the room as I fought the urge to reach for the box under my bed.
I knew that I could easily get rid of the sting from just a bit of tequila or rum and it was taking a lot to keep myself grounded.
As I stirred, my gaze landed on something on the nightstand beside my bed. It was a framed picture.
The only picture the twins and I had of our parents was between a small 4x6 picture in a brown picture frame. It was of my mom in a hospital bed, she had just given birth to me. She was holding me in her arms while my dad stood beside her holding the one-year-old twins in his own.
My mother’s black, pixie-cut hair was messy on her head, and her droopy grey eyes showed how exhausted she was, but she was beautiful. She smiled ear-to-ear as my dad leaned his head against hers. His full, curly hair pressed against her cheek as the couple posed for the camera with their children.
My mom passed away a few hours after that photo was taken.
And suddenly, I couldn’t keep myself away from numbing the feelings any longer.
***
It had been a few days since the party, and it was difficult trying to adjust to the new ways of our friend group.
Ricky and Kailey did not want to be around each other so we couldn't sit at the lunch table together.
Kailey and Bella found a new spot to sit and left the rest of the table to Ricky, Justin, and I.
Being separated made me realize that those two often sparked the fun conversations between us and without them there it was fairly quiet.
Ricky was coping seemingly fine now that a few days had passed. He wasn’t his normal self, but he wasn’t sulking so that was a good sign. Kailey walked around school with a frown, so it didn’t seem that she was doing any differently than Ricky.
I wanted things to go back to the way they were before, for them to make up so the group could be whole again. Ricky, Justin, and I were sitting at the table and listening to each other chew, that was how silent it was.
"You all look like your dog just died," said a familiar voice.
The person standing before me was not who I thought it would be.
It was Benji, my brother’s best friend and my sister’s boyfriend.
I had sometimes forgotten that he attended the same school I did.
I rarely ever saw him because he never showed up for class, and when he did show up he wasn’t usually concerned with me.
Benji took a seat in the chair across from us with a wide smile.
Not too long ago I would be ecstatic at an impromptu visit from Benji, but after all that had been happening with Javi and I, my attraction to Benji had died down.
I still liked him, but it wasn’t as much as it was before.
Not to mention the weird vibes I sometimes got from him lately.
No one responded to Benji's statement, so he continued. "What are you doing after school, Eli?"
I thought about it like I was a busy person with a hectic schedule, but I was not that. I was actually a person with a rather free schedule.
"Probably not much."
"Perfect!" He clapped his hands. "I need you to come with me to run errands after school."
"Why?" Ricky asked for me as he eyed him.
Benji maintained eye contact with me but answered Ricky's question. "The big day is near and I need to get the perfect gift for Easton."
I scoffed because I knew exactly what he was referring to. He was talking about my siblings' birthday. Their nineteenth birthday was only a week away and Benji wanted me to help him pick out gifts.
Most seniors in high school were seventeen turning eighteen, not eighteen turning nineteen like the twins.
It was not that they had ever been held back a grade.
No, it was our aunts doing. Macy decided to redshirt the twins, basically meaning she waited a year longer than usual to enroll them in kindergarten.
Then she turned around and did it with me when I turned school aged.
Why did the woman who dreaded having to take care of us kept us out of school and home with her a year longer than she had to?
Beats me. All I knew was that coupled with our late birthdays made us a year older than the majority of our classmates.
It worked out for me since I skipped a grade because it put me at the same age as everyone else.
That was not the case for Easton and Emerson.
Anyway, Benji wanted my help because he was notorious for picking out the worst gifts known to mankind. Last year he bought Emerson yarn for Christmas. She never knit a day in her life and had no desire to learn because she believed it was old people.
“Easton?” I asked. “Just a gift for him? What about your girlfriend?”
Benji pressed his lips together. “Her too.”
"Oh. Pass,” I said dryly.