You Are the Key

Chapter Four:

I watched it like it was a movie…

There was the memory of a small, energetic eight year old boy. He’d fallen, and his whole knee was riddled with gravel and long red scratches. Pavement was the enemy. For weeks he picked those scabs. One day our teacher yelled at him and he cried. Nobody knew his dad yelled at him enough at home. So I held his hand under the desk and played with him at recess, because everybody thought he was a scab picking cry baby.

Evan Marciano picked on him and me, because we were more mature than everybody else in sixth grade, a few years later. Truth was, I don’t think we were more mature, we’d just seen too much of the adult world. At least I did. I saw that people will pick on you no matter who you are. That scraped knee was what had settled it for me and Bran, because that’s when I really opened my eyes. Only in third grade, we’d become the closest of friends – over a boo boo.

That was when I swore an oath to keep the world back, to hold it off from attacking the purest of souls. Brandon didn’t spoil as quickly as I did. It took him a few years, but I hadn’t failed completely. He still had a bit of humanity left, but it hurt him. He turned to drugs a while ago, when I hadn’t been paying attention. I do regret letting my guard down long enough for that treachery to happen…

In high school, I’d confused him a lot. I never wanted sex; I didn’t advance on him in that way like every other girl had. Even though I wasn’t planning on going down that path, we did end up sleeping together a few times. It was when he was the most vulnerable, when he needed something more than a hug. I’d never ask him why it was ever a comfort, but it seemed a bit odd that sex was his go to kind of thing. I liked Oreo’s. I guess we were different in that way.

 “I don’t know why you waste your time…” The words echoed in my head like poison the whole way to the camp. The A/C blasted and Brandon started to shiver. With no shirt on, he was introduced to the Arctic. I grabbed his bag off the floor in front of his feet, avoided touching his stash and pulled a t-shirt out. He grumbled while I was putting it on him.

Sometimes you needed to dress him and feed him, like a child. He’d run around in his boxers and starve if you didn’t. But no matter how many times I had to force a t-shirt on him, it never got old. I smiled when trying to get his arms trough the correct holes.

Love sometimes is a one-sided thing; sometimes it’s forgotten, sour or never accepted. But the best kind of amity? Mutual. And I knew when he snuggled into me, his shirt scrunched up over his stomach, that he felt more than a love for drugs. He sat up long enough to deliver one small peck to my cheek, and then he was back to sleep.

Another hour passed on the road. We switched from highway to busy streets, to quiet back road.

“Why’re we pulling over?” Jackie asked and Gavin nodded at the painted sign. Lakeview Grounds it read. She clapped her hands. “First thing I’m going to do is take a shower!”

“Wow… if you were a guy, I’d kick you in the nuts…” Brandon yawned and shook his head. It was a fact that we all needed showers, but it wasn’t exciting like she’d made it out to be. I flicked his shoulder.

“Try and be nice.” I told him and he laughed groggily. When we turned onto the main path, campers lining both sides of the Jeep, Brandon rolled down his window and stuck his head outside. It was four in the morning and still dark outside, but that didn’t matter to any of us. Gavin turned up the stereo and tore down the path, following hand painted signs to the Camp Store.

The Jeep’s tires crunched over the gravel as we came to a quick stop, pulling over beside a small building with twinkling lights stapled around the windows. We piled out of the car, and all took deep breaths of the clean, country air. This was different than California. No beach fronts, just lakes and streams and tall tall trees. The temperature was cool at night, which was much different than the needed A/C climate back home.