My Life as a Teenage Rebel

Chapter 36: Roy Washington

Ky Madison

CHAPTER 36 Roy Washington

“Hey,” I say to Evilyn as she returns from dropping Evan off at the nurse’s office. “He get to sleep or were you not paying attention because you, quote, unquote: ‘Eh, don’t really care.’” I raise an eyebrow mockingly.

“When did I say that?” Evilyn asks as she takes her place beside me, pursing her pale pink lips as she watches the game.

I snort lightly. “Uh, like, two days ago, remember? I asked you if you wanted Evan to stay, you said you didn’t care, and then you said nothing mattered so long as you have me and Kyle,” I grin as I list this last one.

Evilyn scowls, fighting the blush that slowly rises to color her alabaster cheeks. She may have dyed her hair black, but she still has all the stereotypical tendencies of a redhead (except for gregariousness, that she seeeriously lacks in). She ignores my last reminder. “What, I’m not allowed to have a change of heart?” she asks stubbornly.

I blink at her while Schwartz lightly bonks Owen on the head with the ball, playful. “No, you’re allowed to have a change of heart…I’m just curious as to what brought it on.” I say. It’s not like Evilyn to, all of the sudden, change her attitude towards a person. “Was it something he did?” I ask.

Her lips still pursed, she turns her head away slightly, not meeting my eyes. “More like something he said,” she murmurs.

I wonder what it is Evan could have said, but I still remember to tease Evilyn: “Awww,” I drawl, like I’m talking to a two-year-old, “Evi made a fwieeend!”

“Shuddup!” she snaps immediately, and then spins on her heel and stomps toward where Madelin sits.

Hmm… I look over at my twin on the court, who – instinctively – turns to look back at me. We watch each other for a second, silently communicating. You know, some people seriously do believe with no doubts whatsoever that we have twin telepathy powers. (And this is without us trying to trick them into believing that we do have such powers.) And, I guess, they’re not entirely wrong. (Although we’re not Evilyn; we don’t believe in the supernatural, just to make that clear.)

I distinctly remember several occasions when we were children where we’d be sitting in class, bored out of our minds, and then look up at each other, stare for a couple of minutes, and then suddenly silently agree that: We should make so-and-so cry for his mommy today.

Yeah…we were, uh, complicated children.

Wry smiles appear on both of our faces as we remember the same thing, even while yards away from each other. The two of us simultaneously glance over at Andrew, who had to deal with our “complexity” more times than he could care to count. After a brief chuckle, we look back at one another again, and then I mouth to my brother: “Evan,” and nod towards where Evilyn leans over to look at Madelin’s heavy book with surprisingly genuine curiosity.

Kyle blinks and turns to look at Evilyn with consideration. He knows exactly what I’m talking about. We rarely ever immediately decide to keep someone in our lives; the consideration of whether or not we should usually takes quite a bit of time. And now…it seems it takes longer than usual, because…we have to consider the feelings of other people too: the people whom we’ve already decided to keep in our lives. And that’s new for us… unbelievably new.

The game draws our attention away from our thoughts as Roy steals the ball from Raj, dribbling to the side of the court where his hoop looms high over the guys’ heads. And suddenly that side of the court gets crowded. I glance briefly at my purple Snap-On wristwatch. It seems practice is almost over; this should be their last point before I tell them to hit the showers.