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 findonegift 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 usto be able to coherently answer questions when we could barely keep our eyes open.
