Chapter 23 Twyla
Twyla
Both Oscar and I are super paranoid as we walk on the sidewalk back to my car. After all, what we’re wearing makes us stick out like two big-ass sore thumbs. We keep looking over our shoulders, looking all around us.
I see my car just a few yards away.
But I suddenly hear a voice to my left: “Nash?”
Oscar and I turn our heads and see a short-haired Asian American girl, probably in her early twenties, a pink backpack slung over her shoulders, coming towards us.
She asks me, “It’s Nash, right?”
“No,” I automatically say.
But then my brain kicks in. It tells me that this case of mistaken identity (why does this keep happening?) is perhaps an opportunity.
I laugh. “Just kidding. Yeah, I’m Nash.”
“Thought so.”
I squint a bit, pretending to jog my memory. “I’m sorry. I forgot where I met you.”
She smirks. “We met at Perpetual Sunset.”
“Oh, yeah, that’s right. Perpetual Sunset.”
She says, “So you’ve never seen my whole face. So no need to be sorry. I mean, I wasn’t sure if it was you or not.”
“Huh?”
“I mean, neither of us totally recognize each other now because we’ve never seen each other’s entire faces.”
I’m guessing she’s talking about some kind of bar or club or something, and it’s really dark in there.
I nod my head as if I know exactly. “Right, right.”
“Maybe this will help you remember.” She reaches out and runs the palm of her hand across my chest, slowly, seductively. Then she glides her hand down to my stomach and then even lower, pulling back right before reaching my crotch.
I chuckle nervously. “Ah, it’s coming back to me.”
Oscar leans in toward the girl. “My name’s Oscar.”
I discreetly elbow Oscar. I quickly say to the girl, “That’s his Fortnite username. His real name is Victor.”
“What?” Oscar says, confused.
“Nice to meet you, Victor.” She wraps her arms around Oscar and hugs him tight.
Oscar smiles. “Yeah, my name is Victor.”
“My name is Twyla,” she says and turns her attention back to me. “Anyway, you gonna be at Perpetual Sunset tonight?”
“Yes,” I nod. “Definitely.”
“Good. You’re bringing your girlfriend again too, right?”
“Alessandra? Yeah.”
“That’s her name. That’s right. I remember now.“ Twyla winks a knowing wink. “I really remember.”
“Hey, by the way,” I say, “where is Perpetual Sunset? I think I was too messed up last time to even know where I was exactly.”
“You need to ease up on the blow.” She smiles. “Don’t you remember the rules? They don’t text the address until an hour before it starts. Perpetual Sunset is at a different place every month. I mean, I thought you told me you had been going for years.”
“I have been. It’s just that Perpetual Sunset isn’t the only place I go to. There are others, and all the rules are different.”
“Wow, you’re wild.” She places her hand on my ass.
Oscar says, “I’m pretty wild too.”
I say to Twyla, “Hey, I lost my phone. So I won’t get that text tonight.”
She takes her phone out of her back pocket. “Then when I get the address, I’ll text it to Victor.” She turns to Oscar. “Send me a text, so that I have your number.”
Oscar fumbles for his phone. Twyla tells him her number. He sends her a text.
“Cute,” she says. She holds up her phone and shows me that Oscar sent her an emoji face with hearts in its eyes.
“See you tonight then,” I say.
Twyla starts walking away. “See you, boys.”
After she’s gone, Oscar says to me, “Damn, son, you lie like a pro. You’re good at pretending.”
I shrug. “I guess.”
“I’m confused,” says Oscar. “I thought Perpetual Sunset was like a club, but it’s not?”
“It sounds like it’s some kind of party that’s in a different location every month.”
Oscar pumps a fist. “We’re going to a college party, bro!”
I keep watching Twyla as she walks away, trying to piece together how exactly she fits into Nash’s life.
“It’s gonna be lit,” says Oscar. “But we gotta go home first. I need some clean clothes. And I gotta shower and stuff, ’cause I got chlorine all over my skin and your brother’s cum on my arm.”
I nod, not really listening to Oscar, trying to make sense of everything I’ve discovered today about my brother.
“Damn, that girl’s fine. Right, Hunter? She was into you and shit.
Why’d she think you was Nash? Whatever. She wants you bad.
I bet she’s got some fine-ass friends too.
I don’t know what I was thinking, thinking I was gonna be with Blanca forever.
This girl here just opened my eyes, bro.
Like, I wanna bang a girl from every race.
You wanna bang a girl from every race, Hunter? ”
I’m still in my head, a bunch of questions swirling. Is Nash really doing cocaine? Is he some kind of drug dealer? Did he have sex with this girl we just met? Did Alessandra know about it? What kind of relationship did Nash and Alessandra have, before she was brutally killed?
It’s beginning to look like Nash, the brother I thought I knew and envied, is not really who he seems to be.
Oscar says, “What? You don’t, Hunter? Why?
You don’t like Asian girls or something?
That’s kind of racial and shit. What about Black girls?
You like Black girls? Now I understand why people like to travel.
You go to Asia, you’re banging Asian girls.
You go to Africa, you’re banging African girls.
Maybe that’s what I should try to do after I graduate.
Maybe I’ll travel and bang. Hey, would you watch a YouTube show that was called ‘Travel and Bang’?
I mean, I can get a camera and record myself going from country to country.
I mean, I wouldn’t record myself banging though.
They don’t allow that on YouTube. I’d just record all the travel parts.
Some of those YouTube dudes make a lot of money. ”
I snap out of it and get into my car.
Oscar slides into the passenger seat. He doesn’t seem to mind that I’m ignoring him, that I’m singularly focused on the situation with my brother.
I think Oscar still doesn’t totally believe me about seeing Nash murder Alessandra.
Because he didn’t see it with his own eyes, it’s hard for him to imagine, to conceptualize, to let sink in.
He’s just along for the crazy ride, whatever it turns out to be.
I start the car.
Oscar bangs on the glove compartment in delight. “We’re going to a party, bro! We’re going to a party!”
Oscar is so excited right now, which is in sharp contrast to his mood earlier today when he was betrayed by his girlfriend and friend, so I don’t have the heart to tell him that we’re actually not going to a party, at least in the way he thinks we are.
I mean, yes, it seems that, if we do want to gather more information about Nash and what he’s up to (since things keep getting more confusing and messy), then we have to show up at Perpetual Sunset—but not as attendees.
This is going to be a reconnaissance mission.
We have to sneak in, hide out, watch in secret.
And if my brother shows up, we have to spy on him, follow him around, go deeper into his life, a life that I apparently don’t know about at all.
As I drive us back to Point Liberty, Oscar watches travel videos on YouTube.
At first, he just wants to see what the girls look like in different countries, different cities.
But then he starts getting into the idea of seeing new places, experiencing new things, learning about different cultures.
He’s beginning to understand the greater appeal of travel.
I stop my mind a second to think about this.
This moment here: it’s the first time I’ve seen Oscar kind of dream big.
His ideas about himself, about his future, have never before extended beyond the borders of the city he’s lived in his entire life.
It’s weird. I start to tear up because my best friend, who’s always been afraid to dream, who’s never learned how to dream, is doing exactly that.