Twenty-four
Eli
T oday was the twins’ birthday and they had the pleasure of being grounded during it.
They didn't seem too upset about it, though.
Since they had each other, they didn't need to do anything special.
Being together made it special enough. Plus, they got plenty of birthday wishes at school earlier in the day.
I remembered that the day Benji dragged me, Javier, and Justin to the mall was unsuccessful.
Benji left with presents for Easton, but not a thing for Emerson.
I had no idea whether or not he ended up finding her a gift.
I had been avoiding him since that uncomfortable moment between us in the store.
It seemed that he hadn’t. The twins and I were in our bedroom and they were showing each other each gift they received at school. There were quite a few gifts, but that was normal. They had friends at school that were very loyal to them.
“This one is from Poppy,” Emerson said as she showcased the bracelet. “She got me a gift this year because I made her feel bad about not getting me one last year.”
Easton hummed. “Way to guilt trip your way into an extra present.”
“I didn’t mean to. I thought she would realize I didn’t actually care, we aren’t even close friends.”
Out of pure curiosity, I asked, "Did Benji get you anything?"
The twins’ smiles faded as they turned their heads toward me. Emerson snorted. “Funny, I don’t seem to remember speaking to you.”
I bit down on my tongue. “I was just wondering.”
“Does it matter? It’s not like you ever get us anything.”
You never get me a gift for my birthday, either.
“Never mind,” I grumbled, turning my attention back to my phone.
Emerson showed off the rest of the presents she received to Easton.
I listened the entire time and not once did she mention a gift from Benji.
When it was Easton’s turn to show his sister what he was giving, he had mentioned Benji’s name at least three times.
I shot glances their way every now and again, and each time the irritation on Emerson’s face grew more and more.
“Let me get this straight,” Emerson smacked her lips together. “He can get you three gifts—all that are unique to you, by the way—but he could not find one gift to buy me?”
“That’s shitty of him, Em.” Easton cracked his knuckles.
Emerson threw her arms up in exasperation. “Instead of buying me a bullshit gift he got me no gift at all. Does he even try?”
“He couldn’t find anything because he didn’t look,” I didn’t lift my head up as I spoke. “It kinda looked like he didn’t care.”
Emerson walked toward my bed, her all of a sudden caring about what I had to say. “What do you mean?”
I let out a sigh as I placed my phone on the bed and faced her. “He insisted I go to the mall with him and—”
“You went to the mall with Benji?” Easton interrupted.
I nodded. “He wanted me to help him pick out gifts for you guys, but instead of actively looking he skimmed over stuff without giving it any thought. At least for your gifts, Emerson.”
Emerson’s brows furrowed. “Why did you go with him?”
Seriously, that’s what she was worried about?
“I didn’t really want to, Emerson. It just happened.”
“We told you to stay away from him,” my brother reprimanded. “We don’t want our friends colliding with your weird ones.”
As if my friends would ever associate with theirs. My friends wanted nothing to do with anyone that tolerated my siblings because they knew about the emotional torment they put me through.
I stared at him dully. “You should focus on your weirdo best friend first.”
Easton raised a skeptical eyebrow. “What are you trying to say, Elias?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. I was afraid to tell the twins about Benji’s odd behavior with me at the mall.
My siblings were not rational people, so I feared that they would think I was either making shit up or misinterpreting the situation.
We had known Benji for years and he had never acted weird until recently.
What if they thought I was just stirring up drama for the sake of it?
I hadn’t seen or heard from Benji since that night.
He hadn’t been at our house in a while, and I couldn’t tell if that was because he was keeping his distance or if it was another reason.
Telling Easton and Emerson about one unusual encounter seemed unnecessary, especially when Benji hadn’t been near me since.
“Nothing, I’m just saying shit. Sorry he didn’t get you a present, Emerson.”
“Fuck off, Eli,” Emerson muttered. She was hurt by her boyfriend's lack of care but taking it out on me was not going to fix his laziness.
She left the room with her head held high, leaving Easton and I alone. My brother's gaze was intense, I could feel it without looking at him. Keeping peace between us meant keeping myself calm and not reacting to his obvious staring.
“Stay away from our friends,” he warned.
“I plan to.” I laid my head on my pillow and shut my eyes. “I know you don’t want them to associate with your killer little brother.”
There I went causing more tension, but I couldn’t help but let the words slip.
The twins not wanting me to interact with their friends was not bothersome, it was their reasoning why that got to me.
They genuinely believed I was completely at fault for our being orphans, so they wanted to protect their friends from me like I was a damn serial killer.
I glanced at Easton out of curiosity, and I was surprised when I saw the slight frown on his face. His jaw was clenched hard, but not because he was angry. It was like he was trying to stop himself from saying something that he wasn’t supposed to.
“Happy birthday,” I whispered.
My brother’s shoulders began to relax and his face returned neutral. He offered me the middle finger before heading out of the door, leaving me both confused and disquiet.
My siblings were the weird ones.
***
We arrived at the competition bright and early. We had to be there for seven AM so I was still half asleep. They expected us to be able to coherently answer questions when we could barely keep our eyes open.
There were less opponents than last time which was odd since eliminations weren’t a thing in the competition.
I guess people had given up after the first round after they did not place where they wanted to.
Whatever, I wasn't complaining because that meant it was more likely for Javi and I to come out on top.
My fatigue from having to be up earlier than normal only made my nerves worse.
Javier kept up the conversation between us just like he did last round.
I didn't know if it was because he was nervous like I was and was trying to distract himself, or if it was just because he liked to talk. I was trying to focus on remembering everything we went over when we weren’t…
distracted, but it was difficult to do that with the constant babbling.
Principal Montgomery was very enthusiastic today. After our second place 'victory,’ as she called it, she was optimistic. She seemed convinced that we would win this round and then next. If that happened, we would no doubt make it to the finals.
She was so hopeful that she had been bragging that we would win.
She said it as if it was a fact set in stone.
In the morning announcements at school, she told all the students and faculty over the intercom that we were competing.
She did that the day after we competed for the first time, and she was sure to announce that we placed second.
It was fine since our participation wasn’t a secret that needed to be kept, but I wished she would’ve been more subtle about it.
Then a couple of days ago she brought it up again.
She wanted our fellow classmates to know that when Javi and I won the entire competition, our school would be the first to win in our district ever.
Her optimism and faith in us were nice and it was great to know that she thought that highly of us.
Though, in the event that we did not win like she hoped, it would be terribly disappointing for everyone involved.
We were in the exact same room as last time and they had us seated in the same spots. We weren't almost late this time, thankfully. We were early instead. That gave us some time to internally panic while we waited.
Javier’s chattering had finally ceased once we reached where we needed to be. He was thinking about something while his finger tapped against the table incessantly.
"What I want to ask you has absolutely nothing to do with the competition," he said, his tone low because the room was quiet, "but I feel like a distraction might be good for the both of us, so I am going to ask you anyway."
My head tilted. “Ask me what?"
"Benji acts pretty odd, right? Or is it just me?"
I found his behavior slightly creepy, honestly. I was trying to get rid of those thoughts, but now my mind kept wandering back to every interaction we had ever had before, and they all made me shudder.
I shrugged. "A little, I guess. Why?"
It was his turn to shrug. "The few times I’ve been around him he’s acted strange. I’ve seen him do shit that makes me question what his intentions are. Mostly with you."
Others could see it too? Ever since he stopped treating me like his friend and girlfriend's little brother, things had felt uneasy. Life was much less complicated when he’d only speak a few sentences to me while I gave him longing stares because of the crush I had on him.
Javi continued. “I don’t know if you remember, but one of the parties you went to he was persistent on getting you to drink what he was giving you. That was alarming.”
Javier’s words brought back memories I didn’t know I had. “For real?”
“Yeah. I haven’t seen him do anything else, but I hate the vibes I get from him.”