Chapter 67
[The following chapter contains strong language. Reader caution is advised.]
Wednesday 9th February 2000
“Oh, hello Alex!”
So said Rin (last name unknown to me) as I returned home one chilly, drizzly February evening.
“Hey…” I replied in a healthy mix of surprise and confusion.
She giggled lightly… I must have been sporting quite the expression.
“Lucy invited me over,” she explained. “We’ve been trying to get that briefcase open.”
“Any joy?” I asked her while taking off my jacket and shoes.
“No… we got through almost another thousand numbers but no luck… plus Lucy keeps trying random combinations while I’m going through systematically, which gets annoying…”
“Sounds about right…” I sighed softly.
“I’m guessing there’s some kind of device inside that can cancel out Melody’s powers,” she mused, following me to the living room. “Lucy thinks it’s a bomb that’ll explode when we open the case…”
“And she’s still trying to get it open?”
Don’t get me wrong, folks, I know my sister well enough that this isn’t particularly surprising…
“Yeah, that’s what I said…” Rin shrugged. She’d only known Lucy for a matter of months – admittedly, most of that time spent living in the same building as her – and she already seemed as unsurprised as I did.
“Where is she, anyway? Preparing a bomb shelter?”
“She was complaining that things were getting too tense and she needed a shower to cool off…”
As I took to the sofa, I gave her a weary look.
“You know what that means… right…?” I probed.
“I know…” she whimpered while settling down in an armchair.
“Sorry you have to deal with all this…” I told her; she shook her head.
“No, I’m sorry, you’ve put up with her for so many years…”
We both laughed a little at how peculiar an exchange that was.
“Thanks for getting our mobiles back, by the way!” she chirped. “There was no way I was getting a new one any time soon…”
“I didn’t really do anything, Melody just handed them all to Lucy,” I admitted. “But I’m glad you didn’t lose them permanently.”
“What- if you don’t mind me asking,” she abruptly prefaced herself, “what’s the deal with you and Melody…? I know you were classmates, but Lucy said she singled you out the other week…”
“Long story short, I had a crush on her for a while – she was smart and funny and attractive – and she turned me down before I even got to ask. Then she got a lot sharper with me… I guess more honest. And… you already know all the stuff about Harmony, right?”
“Mhm, heard that side at least,” she confirmed with something of a troubled smile. “Do you think… I know Melody helped choose the five of you, but what if she chose you specifically because of all that…?”
“What, that you have to be crazy to crush on her?” I joked without thinking – or, I guess, to distract from what I was actually thinking.
“Maybe you left a mark on her,” Rin proposed. “You stood out to her and she recognised you… had the makings of a Painter.”
A very nice way of calling me crazy… but then, if she could use a Contact suit, she was crazy too.
“Perhaps, but I don’t think I made much of an impression other than the one time I got about two seconds into a confession.”
“Still, maybe she actually likes you?”
I cut her off abruptly with a “pfft” that devolved into near-hysterical laughter. She remained silent; the sheepish look on her face made me feel a little bad as I fought to compose myself.
“I’m- I’m sorry… there’s no way in hell that’s possible…” I spoke confidently. “Look, she understands the way in which I’m screwed-up and she keeps trying to win me over to join her. She calls me a dragon. That’s all I am to her, some kind of beast to capture. I’m her Charizard.”
(Yes, I realised afterwards that you don’t catch Charizard. What I know about Pokemon, I’ve almost entirely learnt from Bao, so not every detail is at the forefront of my mind. At least cut me some slack on coming up with the analogy so quickly.)
“That’s fair…” she mused. “I’ve only met her twice, and even then, I wouldn’t really call it a proper meeting, so I don’t know her the way you do… sorry for assuming…”
A sullen look found its way to her face.
“No, it’s okay!” I spoke with some urgency, suddenly feeling guilty. “I guess it’s not an unreasonable guess… but I really don’t think she likes me that way.”
“She thinks a lot of you, at least,” the guest countered, staring off somewhere nonspecific, thoughtfully. “If she’s focusing on you in particular…”
“I must just be that dangerous, in her eyes…”
“Are you dangerous?”
All credit to her, the tone with which she asked me that question was so transparently sincere that there wasn’t a trace of fear, of concern, of accusation. Maybe she’d heard all about me and the way I can be from Lucy, but she was enquiring without any prior assumptions. A question that could have made me feel hurt instead had no undesired emotional effect on me.
Pondering the answer, on the other hand, unsettled me as per usual…
“I… I might be…” I replied after a few moments’ thought. “Sometimes, I get carried away with my emotions… I get so angry or so upset… and I wind up hurting other people because I lash out. And now I keep worrying that I’m going to hurt Dakota or the others, that I’m going to get wound up by something stupid and turn into a monster…”
I neglected to mention that I literally had become a monster at one point. Too ashamed to bring it up; even voicing this much made me feel two inches tall.
“I don’t like myself much… I don’t see what other people seem to see in me… and I guess I feel things really strongly. So she sees that as a weapon, or a power. Especially when I have a Lokon weapon… she wants to turn me against the world and unleash me on it. She probably thinks I’m the easiest to win over, too.”
“Clearly she’s wrong, or you would’ve joined her a long time ago,” Rin pointed out gently. “And… I don’t know you that well, but I don’t think you’re dangerous. I’ve known dangerous people… I know the-”
A chirpy ringtone interrupted her, and she jolted a little in surprise before reaching into her pocket.
“Sorry, one moment…” she smiled, fishing out her mobile and answering the call.
“Hey… yeah, I’m still here. … I tried talking to her about it but she- I know… I really think you need to speak with her… if she won’t hear you out, then… yeah. We’ll keep working on it. Bye-bye.”
Her brow now furrowed, she ended the call and returned the phone to her pocket.
“Sorry,” she apologised again, this time a little more upset.
“It’s okay… what was that all about…?” I asked her, figuring it was to do with Lucy.
“It’s not really my place to say…” the girl told me, fidgeting a little.
“Right, sorry, shouldn’t have assumed,” I apologised. Trust me to stick my foot in it…
“Don’t worry about it.”
She chuckled a little.
“Look at us, apologising for everything…”
“Sorry about that,” I teased, a smile emerging.
“You’re home, then,” Mum’s voice emerged from the doorway to the kitchen. I turned to see her standing there with something of an unimpressed expression.
“Oh, hi Mum, sorry-”
Rin tittered some more and I held back a laugh myself. Mum seemed confused, and yet amused despite herself, our delight presumably catching on.
“Dinner’s ready in five,” she remarked.
“Alright- wait,” I looked to Rin, “are you eating with us?”
“Mhm, Lucy invited me for dinner,” she confirmed with a light nod.
“Huh, okay… I’m just gonna go and change out of my uniform and then I’ll help lay the table,” I declared, getting back up from the sofa.
Before I could leave the room, Lucy emerged, singing that strip-tease music while playfully moving her towel about. She didn’t even wait for the climax of the tune before dropping the towel and unveiling her naked, still-wet body.
I’d like to add here: I looked away almost immediately. I caught that she was wet from the shimmer of light reflecting off her in the half-second before I tried to give her a little of the dignity that she seemed hell-bent on shedding.
“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!” she cawed in delight.
“Lucy, for goodness’ sake, go and get dressed!” Mum ordered her sharply.
“Mother, a naked Lucy is a happy Lucy,” my sister replied with formal airs, “I’ll be eating with you in the nude this evening.”
“I won’t tell you again-!”
“Great! That means we can move straight to you accepting it!” she interrupted our mother gleefully.
“Lucy, come on, listen to your mum…” Rin begged; she stood up, and walked over to where Lucy was.
“Why are you all so against me doing what I want…?” Lucy grumbled.
“At least put some underwear on…”
“That’s not an answer!”
Her voice was moving further away: I took a quick peek and saw Rin leading (if not pushing) Lucy back towards the stairs.
“I’m almost at my wit’s end with your sister…” Mum told me with a huff.
“Rebecca, I need a hand!” Dad called from the kitchen, and with that, Mum retreated to join him.
I could still hear Lucy and Rin making their way upstairs, my sister squawking in protest. With no chance of a safe trip to my room just yet, I decided to lay the table first.
…
The meal (spaghetti and meatballs, if you’re interested) was lovely, and Rin stayed just a little longer afterwards before departing to catch her bus.
“Was nice getting to spend some more time with you,” she beamed as she said her goodbyes to me. “See you at the party- I mean uhm- y’know, whenever we next see each other-!”
I knew better than to press her about that slip-up. I could guess, though… Lucy had some kind of party planned in the near future.
After some evening TV, the night settled in and the four of us all went to bed. Nothing special, just your average school-night.
I lay awake in bed, my thoughts drifting about and eventually circling around Valentine’s Day. I already had some things planned for Dakota and me to enjoy on the day, and – with copious amounts of good fortune and desperate pleading – I’d convinced Mum and Dad to let me stay at Dakota’s both the night before (a Sunday night) and the night of Valentine’s itself. If nothing else, I had to take advantage of Dakota’s “waking me up with her boobs” promise.
… now. I’m a teenage boy. I was thinking about my lovely girlfriend and the prospect of a romantic day (and an intimate night) with her. Natural reactions occurred. And I was considering acting upon said reactions when I heard my bedroom door open.
Lucy muttered the theme tune of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? as she shut the door again and tip-toed over to my bed. Once she reached it, she flung the covers open and began climbing in next to me.
“Hey, wait!” I urged her quietly, rolling to face the window and keep my current state as far from her as possible.
“No time for waiting,” she whispered back, slipping in and promptly spooning me. Whether she was doing so with full intent or simply compensating for the lack of space for two in my single bed, I couldn’t say.
“What’s up?”
“Nothing’s up! Nothing’s up at all!” I squeaked. Seriously, what a choice of wording…
“Why’d you turn away?”
“B-Because you needed space so-”
“Have you got a boner?”
What the hell? Did she have some kind of erection-radar?!
“Did you know your cute sis was going to climb into your bed and it got you going?” she continued, voice dripping with the saccharine honey of a tease.
“There are so many things wrong with that idea!” I jeered almost too loudly for that time of night.
“What a sick young man you are,” she laughed regardless, poking my side a little.
“I was thinking about Dakota before you interrupted me…” I whined.
“Interrupted, huh…?”
That tone of voice again…
“I can come back in a few minutes if you wanna see to that boner. Or stay here if you’d prefer…”
“It’s too weird to do it when you know I’m doing it… especially if you’re lying right behind me, you weirdo…”
“Alright, we’ll just lie here while it goes limp again,” she purred in my ear.
I sighed. Understandably, I’m sure you’ll agree.
“Can we just go to sleep?”
“Talk. Then sleep. It’s the Matthews sibling way.”
“It’s your way,” I clarified.
“Same thing,” she assured me.
“What if I just want to sleep? We have school tomorrow-”
“Oh man, don’t remind me…”
I tried a different tactic, saying nothing (and silently urging her to do the same).
“I didn’t miss school one bit while I was away, it’s such a drag…” she groaned as though she was reliving it right there and then. “I really love the Sixth Form Centre, though. Hey, remember the other week when I went up on the stage and started singing Ironic? That was fun. Why can’t school be more like that? Instead of just sitting there with everyone else- obviously Drama’s different but they already did a whole play without me, the bastards…”
“Lucy…”
Alright, yeah, I caved.
“Alex?”
“Talk to me about this.”
“I was until you interrupted!”
“No, I mean… always having to be the centre of attention. Monster-to-monster,” I added, trying to appeal to her current sense of pride in being a monster, “explain to me why.”
“Hmmm…”
Surprisingly, at least for a handful of seconds, that got her to be quiet. She mulled her answer over thoroughly, and then…
“Y’know that science thing about not knowing if the cat’s dead or alive until you open the box?”
“Rings a bell… I think there’s more to it than just that, but yeah…” I nodded at the wall.
“It’s like that,” she insisted. “If people aren’t looking then… well, it’s not looking so much as…”
Another pause.
“Liking…”
“You want them to like you…?” I repeated, making sure I was understanding what she meant.
“Alex, you’re asking me to make sense of myself,” my sister warned me. “I don’t think, I just act. I do what I do. I know I’m not normal but I don’t really care.”
“I’ve known you for as long as I can remember. I know when you’re lying,” I told her firmly. She squeezed me a little.
“I do whatever I need to do to be happy. That’s a good way to live, isn’t it?”
“Depends how happy you are,” I shrugged. “I don’t understand why you’re proud of being like this…”
“Because it makes me special. I don’t really wanna talk about this…”
“I know we can’t just be normal, but don’t you want to be?” I carried on, just a little more. “Don’t you wish you didn’t have to worry so much about other people liking you or not?”
“If we can’t be normal then what’s the point in wishing we were? Now seriously, stop it or I’ll flick your dick.”
“The hell…? That’s just mean…”
And plenty incentive to stop pressing her…
“I hit Melody in the head with the briefcase, I’m a warrior queen,” Lucy spoke triumphantly, suddenly back to her usual self.
“I’m still really proud of you for that,” I mentioned. The mental image… I’m not one to condone violence, but it did make me a little happy. “And… you know I care about you, right? Even if you get on my nerves a lot… and we don’t agree on all this monster stuff…”
“Yeah, Soppy, I love you tooooo,” she cooed, rubbing her foot against mine. “Now, can we snuggle properly?”
“Okay, okay…”
I rolled onto my back, and she promptly snuggled up to me some more, head resting on my shoulder.
“Just like old times,” she murmured warmly.
“You slept in here with me last year…”
“We had Kendal and Dakota with us, doesn’t count.”
“That time we were both ill, then…”
“That was in the day,” my sister moaned, hitting my chest lightly.
“Stop making excuses…”
A yawn emerged from me, seeming to roll up from my gut as an urgent demand for sleep.
“Never,” Lucy replied defiantly, prodding my sole with her toes.
It’s weird… all this Painter stuff has been going on for so long that the whole thing has become my new normal… me and my friends, hanging out and fighting monsters, and trying to deal with Melody in the fleeting moments when the opportunity arises. But now and then, beyond just eating dinner with my family, moments like this remind me of the old normal… me and my sister, probably five years too old for it, falling asleep together after chatting about this and that.