“Who is this?” asked Salvatore.
“This is Whitney Brownson. Who the hell isthis?”
-1-
Xavier
XAVIER WAKES IN Ahospital bed, his mother and sister at his side. “Oh my God,” says his mother. “He’s awake. He’s awake!” She leans close to him, touches his face.
“It was her,” Xavier manages.
“Shhh,” says his mother.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” says Roma. “He eats something and gets food poisoning and it’smy fault?” She stands, crosses her arms over her chest.
“Be quiet,” says Whitney.
“This is insane! Why do you hate me, Xavier?”
“Shhh,” says his mother. A doctor, a young woman in a white coat, comes into the room and looks relieved. Roma winks at her brother. She seems cheerful, amped up.
“He’s going to be OK,” says the doctor.
“Oh, thank God,” says Roma, transforming her face into the face of a concerned, loving twin. “That was so stressful for Mom and me,” she adds.
Xavier closes his eyes. He imagines taking Bobcat up on his offer of borrowing his father’s gun. Just to warn Roma, towait until she is asleep and press it to her temple. She would wake up and see that he is not scared of her. That she has to leave him alone. He tries to tell himself he could do it. For just an instant, he imagines his life without her, how light and beautiful every morning would feel.
“Oh my God, he’scrying,” says Roma. “Mom, look, he’s crying like a baby!”
Xavier imagines pulling the trigger of Bobcat’s gun, imagines it being over—all the fear, the attempts to win her, the poisoning, the pain. Roma is a part of him, always, but something inside her is twisted. Bobcat’s dad’s pistol would be cold in his palm. It would be so easy, just one pull of the trigger, one shot.
-2-
Bobcat
ROBERT DRIVES TO LUCY’Sapartment, the gun in his glove compartment. He’s still shaking from what his father made him do.
(His father, a coward.)
Xavier has sent a text:TURTLE ISLAND, 8PM, BRING IT PLEASE. I’M READY.
Xavier is even polite when he’s texting about killing someone. Not that Robert thinks Xavier will do it. They all know Roma’s a psycho, but there has to be a better way. Sure, drunk on the greenbelt, Robert had talked about his dad’s pistol, about how Xavier could end all his misery with one shot. And who would suspect Xavier, the perfect twin? All they’d have to do is maybe write a fake suicide note for Roma, or…who knows? Make it look like a burglary, or like she was hiking and got attacked. But Robert didn’t mean it and neither did Xavier. They like to talk a big game but they’re not murderers.
(Though inCall of Dutyit feels fantastic to kill.)
(But that’s not real.)
(Still, he likes it, maybe too much.)
His father also talks a big game, but he gets off on making Robert shoot a coyote. Pathetic. Robert almost refused, but he knows how close he is to being sent to his grandparents’ house in Midland. He’s “one more thing” close. If he even gets a B, he’ll be packed off to the middle of nowhere.
(Fuck.)
(His grandpa is worse than his dad.)
(None of them even know what a motherboard is.)
The coyote’s burial was the worst part. But Robert took a long shower and scrubbed off all the dirt, the stink of death. His father asked where he thought he was going as Robert left. Too many triumphant whiskeys in to even notice Robert had the gun.
