“Jello… Jello…. Why the hell do we have no Jello?” Bell moved a couple of cans to reveal a small box. “Jello? Wait… pudding. Damn it.”
Abandoning the pantry, she moved to the refrigerator. “Cheese? C’mon, please tell me we at least have some cheese…” A door opened behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to see Matt making himself at home, pulling up a chair at the kitchen table. “Mom’s not going to like you showing up unannounced.”
“She should be used to it. Making yourself some munchies?”
“I would be if we had any food. Gah, how can we have no cheese OR Jello?” She grabbed the pack of hotdogs, tossing it on the counter as she slammed the fridge door.
“I’m not sure if I want to know what you were planning to make with cheese and Jello…”
“Shut. Up.” She put two of the hotdogs on a plate and popped it in the microwave. While they cooked, she moved to one of the cabinets, pulling a few uncooked spaghetti noodles out and sucking on the ends of them.
“You’re weird.” Matt stared at Bell, who received her hotdogs with the noodles sticking out of her mouth.
“No, I’m hungry.” She said around the noodles before taking a bite from them, making a cracking sound.
“Damn, doesn’t that hurt? That sounds dangerous.”
“You should hear when I put skittles in ice-cream. It sounds tooth-cracking, but in reality it’s not that hard.”
“You positive you’re not weird? Because between cheese-Jello and skittles in ice-cream…”
“You’re the one who dips their fries in their coke whenever we get Burger-King.”
“That is perfectly normal. Chewing on raw pasta is not normal.”
“Matt, you should be used to this by now.” she opened up the bread drawer. “Why the hell do we have hotdogs and no buns?” She pulled out the loaf of bread, plopping the bag on the counter before seeing the top of it was covered in green-blue mold. “There is no food in this house!” she threw the loaf in the trash, very exasperated.
“Someone’s PMSing…”
“Matt? Shut the fuck up. I’m hungry.”
“Obviously.”
She scowled at him. Her head turned as footsteps came down the hall. She shoved the remainder of the noodles in her mouth, speed-eating them as her mother entered.
“I swear, he just showed up unannounced.” She started, but was stopped by a wave of her mother’s hand.
“Oh, Matt’s welcome here anytime! He’s like family!” her mother laughed, grabbing a pencil from a drawer and returning upstairs.
“Yeah, family we don’t have to spend the day before cleaning for.” Bell rolled her eyes, resorting to eating the bun-less hotdogs with her fingers. “Why does everything always turn out for you?”
“Because the universe loves me.” He smiled. “Why don’t you just cook the pasta instead of scavenging in your own kitchen?”
“Because I don’t want to open a can of sauce incase my mom wants to use it later and I’m too lazy to cook it anyway.” She turned to see him staring at her. “What?”
“You are the weirdest girl I know.” He shook his head.
“Thank you.” She faux-curtsied for him. “I’ll be here all week. You hungry?”
“You don’t have food enough for yourself!”
“We might have some peanut butter. Ooh! Why didn’t I think of that?” She hurried to the cabinet, pulling out a jar, then moved to another cabinet, standing on her tiptoes to find something. “Aw, come on! No chocolate chips, either? What kind of household is this?” She returned the peanut-butter, slouching. “You can’t have peanut butter on a spoon without chocolate chips…”
“How the hell are you not fat? Skittle ice-cream, jello cheese, now a spoon of peanut butter with chocolate chips?”
“You’re just jealous of my metabolism.” Her stomach growled loudly, and she glared at it. “Shut up! I’ll get you your food, okay? I’m doing the best I can!”
“Aaaaannndd she yells at her stomach. Wonderful.” Matt did a slow clap, ignoring Bell’s piercing stare. The girl started opening drawers and cabinets at random, looking for food. She paused in one, pulling out a plastic-wrapped package.
“Popcorn!” she held the package above her head like a sacred item. “Thou shalt be nuked for the satisfaction of mine stomach!”
“You’re fucking insane.”
“Yes. Care to join me?” she flashed him a smile, popping the pack in the microwave.
“Not especially. But if you made me a bag of popcorn I’ll be your sex slave for a week.” He grinned, but then his smile disappeared as he ducked a flying fork aimed at his head. “Woah, easy there. If you throw knives next…”
“Why resort to knives? Forks leave more holes.” She held another one, poised to throw. But before she could, the microwave beeped, done with its nuking. Her stomach won out over her urge to impale Matt with cutlery, so she retrieved her popcorn.
Matt accepted that she refused to make him food, so he retrieved his own bag, nuking it as he watched Bell devour hers like it was the last meal she’d ever eat. “Slow down, some kid in Africa would explode if they ate like that.”
“Poor little Ubungo…” she put a hand over her heart momentarily. “Oh well, more popcorn for me!”
“You,” He pointed at her, a serious expression on his face. “are a horrible person.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She waved him off. “Wanna watch a movie?”
“What do you have?” He asked, retrieving his own bag.
“You seen Transformers yet?”
“The first one, not the second.”
“I have it. I’m making myself another bag, then I’ll get it set up.”
“Do you have any bowls? I don’t like eating straight out of the bag.” He examined his hand. “It makes your knuckles all buttery.”
“Wimp.” She laughed, pulling out a metal bowl.
“How does that make me a wimp?” he asked, reaching for the bowl. As his fingers touched the rim, Bell yelped. The bowl fell to the floor with a loud clatter. Bell rubbed her fingers, looking at the bowl with a look of mild confusion. “Woah, you okay?” He stepped over the forgotten bowl and put a hand on her arm. “What happened?”
“Static shock. Big one.” She bent to retrieve the bowl. “I wasn’t expecting it, I guess…”
“And you called me a wimp.” He chuckled, giving her a small shove as he took the bowl from her.
“Hush.” She scowled. “Go set up the movie.”
“Coolio.” He retreated to the other room.
She paused, thinking a moment before yelling after him. “And if you blow up my TV I’ll kill you!”
“Too late!” His muffled reply came.
She rolled her eyes, but couldn’t wipe the amused smile from her face.
A door slammed, followed by a voice calling ‘I’m home!’
Seth leaned over the railing at the top of the stairs. “Cal! Finally! Come check this out!”
The older boy ascended the stairs as his little brother retreated to his room. He plopped into a rolling chair, fitting in a few keystrokes on a PC in front of him before his brother entered.
He turned his head towards his brother. “Come check this out.”
Cal approached, putting one hand on Seth’s shoulder and the other on the edge of the desk. He looked over, examining his brother’s profile in the glow of the computer screen. His brother looked so different from him. While Cal was what most people would call ‘dark’ or ‘emo’ in appearance, his brother looked happy and childish, with his sandy blonde hair falling in his bright blue eyes. Cal, himself, had been either blessed or cursed with eyes of a deep gold, which tended to throw people off, or at least give them a shock. Granted, they could only see one of his eyes, seeing as the other was hidden behind a curtain of hair, but still. The brothers still shared their thin, angular faces, and both were tall for their age, though Cal was still about a head taller than Seth.
“You’ll like this.” Seth said, causing Cal to revert his attention to the computer screen. One of Seth’s music mixing software’s was pulled up, and the boy moused over the play button. “You know that drum beat you and I were experimenting with? Well, I used that as a base for a new song.” He clicked, and the mix started. It had bits of piano, and a melody in acoustic, while the drum beat made the backbone of the piece. Cal removed his headphones to hear it better, tilting his head and closing his eyes to take in all the layers.
“Boost the guitar a bit.” He recommended. “And turn the piano’s volume down.” His brother followed the directions, and Cal took a moment to evaluate the changes. “Can you tune the piano down an octave?”
A few keystrokes and it was done. Seth grinned at the modified version. “That sounds sweet.” He looked up at his brother. “You have a gift.”
Cal shrugged, a tiny smile on his lips. “I have experience.” He ruffled his brother’s hair, straightening up. “When you’re my age you’ll be twice as good as me.”
“Yeah, sure.” Seth scoffed, rolling back in his chair to grab his guitar, a well-loved redwood acoustic with abalone moon phases up the neck. He plucked a few notes, experimenting with tones as he hummed along. “You wanna help me with lyrics?” he asked.
“Of course.” Cal replied. He sat where he was, reaching into his sweatshirt pocket and removing his pocket knife and current figure. “As long as you help me with this guy.”
Seth abandoned his guitar, a childlike light igniting in his eyes as he sat on the floor beside his brother. “What are you making?”
“A soldier, I think. I can’t figure out the legs…” he set the half-finished figure on the floor. The upper half of its body was rough, still cube-like and boxy. But the legs were nearly done, with cargo boots and baggy pants. The boys both stared at it for a few moments. Cal’s uncovered golden eye flared, then the iris began to grow black, from the outside in. Seth used to be creeped out by this, but now he was used to it. The figure twitched visibly, then the legs began to move. It walked around in a small circle, the other cube-ish limbs moving unnaturally. Seth scrutinized the figure.
“The back of his left knee is too bulky. He can’t bend it as well.” he pointed out.
Cal scooped up the figure, making a few quick carves before setting it down again. Now the leg movements were less jerk-y. “Good call.” He re-folded his knife as the soldier walked in circles around Seth’s rug.
Cal perked up, his eyes returning to gold as he pulled on his headphones. The Soldier fell to the floor, once again lifeless. Mere seconds later, the door was pushed open, their mom poking her head in.
“What’re you guys up to?” she asked, smiling at them.
Cal shrugged, his expression impossible to read. Seth grinned at their mother. “Nothing much, Mom.”
She nodded, hesitating in the doorway before moving to leave. “Dinner will be ready soon.” She patted the doorframe. “If you boys would set the table that’d be great.”
“Sure thing.” Seth flashed his mother a winning smile as she left the room, leaving the door fully open. As soon as she was down the stairs Cal picked up his carving, returning it to his pocket. He re-ruffled the younger sibling’s hair as he stood, then offered a hand to pull Seth to his feet.
The brothers descended the stairs together, Cal with his arm around Seth’s shoulder.
