The Lamb and the Gray Battle

September 26, 2022

Brantley's mother had once again demanded he return to class. Frustration was the soup du jour. It was a nice day, mid-sixties, sunny, the type of day that invited a walk and Brantley was too dazed to battle the subconscious suggestion.

His mother squawked, "Your LSAT score doesn't mean anything if your GPA is 2.0."

As if he'd let his grades slide that much. Evie needed him now.

Even though Evie moved in in January, Brantley didn't meet her until May. He had been on campus before then and hadn't once visited his mother and brother.

However, Dylan texted constantly and his vocabulary had dwindled to EV, EV, EV. She'd come over and they'd play Elden Ring together. Which meant she'd watch while Dylan played. Evie thought all the videos about King Ao Guang and Prince Ao Nianzang were cool. Which meant she cooed at the right times. He showed her pictures of dragons and she knew the breeds and everything!

"EV has the best music too!"

His mother said, "It's good for Dylan to have a friend. I don't want to pull him out of school again."

His girlfriend invited him to Killington Ski Resort for spring break. Brantley said yes before getting permission.

"You don't mind, do you, Mom?"

Premarital sex wasn't as taboo as it used to be, but getting an apartment before marriage was a big deal. Ashley's parents were progressive and encouraged the couple. It was only a yellow mark on lineage papers if you swapped partners every year. Brantley and Ashley were browsing rental websites when a fight broke out.

Ashley screamed, "Fuck you, demon lover! Rot in Hell. That's where all demon lovers go."

"Oh yeah? Fuck you!"

Brantley researched other universities, when he needed to get applications in to transfer, but most of the deadlines had passed and he'd lose class credits. By then, his bruised ego was restored. He could put up with Ashley jaunting across campus with her pert little breasts and that smirk on her face for one year. Fuck her and her bigotry. He swore the whole drive home. Mostly fuck, fuck and fuck again.

A towering girl with demon red curls was on the porch next door, a band of cats at her ankles. He thought it was the famed EV's older sister.

She doesn't know where she lives, Brantley thought, taking note of the vibrant hair. He yanked out the laundry basket of clothes, toted it into the house.

Jo complained, "Are you going to greet your mother?"

So he paused to kiss her. Then back out to his Ford Focus to drag in the loads of books. His mother trotted out after him, called out a greeting to the dragon of a girl.

The girl twirled around with an "oh", then waved.

So that's Evie? 

The tribe of feral felines had doubled in the few minutes it took him to trudge across the lawn. There must have been twenty of them yowling on that porch. 

Wow, does that girl have enough cats?

And chickens? In the backyard? She belonged in Iowa. Scratch that. Iowa would have been worse about the hair. No wonder Dylan was in love. From a distance, Brantley couldn't tell how old she was. Not in Dylan's grade. Dylan was eleven. This girl was probably a couple of years older.

The girl jogged into the house, waved again as she slipped inside.

If he was honest, this girl was kind of cute. A little chubby, but she had a nice face. That smile made him all gooey.

Brantley shook it off. He wasn't going to fuck around with a kid.

That May day seemed like eons ago.