It was another week before I spoke to either my parents or Jostlenua. I knew my parents were too embarrassed to talk to me, and I was too embarrassed to talk to Jostlenua. I didn't really talk to anyone much, so it was good that my only friend talked enough for the two of us. Well, I had two technically, but I still wasn't quite sure what to think of Barrymore. He had grown on me a lot the last week, he had been there for me any time I needed help or to just let my thoughts loose. I didn't mind telling AJ things, but she was more of a talker than a listener so I usually just didn't. I had officially grown used to her, and truly appreciated her fully now. There was never a shortage of words between us, and a lot of times it was great not having to talk while still having a conversation.
I knew that the silence couldn't last forever though. I had to talk to him, and even though I didn't want to I knew I had to amend things with my parents. I just didn't know what to say to them, what was I supposed to? 'Hey, it's all good for ruining the life of my only sibling, creating an enemy for yourself and me, and on top of that never telling me until I found out myself! Love you guys!' Like that would happen.
I just need to make up with Jostlenua before I do anything with my parents I suppose.
My chance came right then, as I saw him walking not ten yards from me.
"Jostlenua!" And he started walking the other way.
"Jostlenua, please!" He turned around for a second, but then continued on even faster than before.
So of course I bolted after him. It took about three seconds, and I caught up to him. Unfortunately, I didn't slow down enough in time, and we both ended up falling to the ground in a tangled heap.
"Please, just listen to me. Just give me five minutes, I'm begging you. Please." Maybe it was because of how urgent I was to talk to him, maybe it was my tone of voice, but eventually he complied.
"You have to do something for me first."
"What do I need to do, I'll do just about anything."
"Get off me." We were all tangled, I was propped up on one elbow with one of my legs sprawled across his torso and my other one latticed between his knees and his arm was trapped under my mine, which was caught on his book bag strap.
Now, this was the only time I had seen him do anything even close to laugh, or even smile. So I was overjoyed to see the small smirk he had when he asked me to untangle myself.
"Don't have to tell me twice." and I smiled back.
The last couple of days I had planned this whole speech that I would tell him, and at the end we would realize our true friendship as siblings, and run off into the sunset on magic ponies! Not really, but I had at least hoped that he wouldn't be my enemy anymore after this. Of course as soon as I began, everything went out the window. But in the end I liked my improv apology much better.
"Look, Jostlenua... I know my parents made a huge mistake. My mother was a cheating psycho and my dad was a ditching loser. They gave you away at the first sign of something scary and left you in a place that no child should ever be left in." I reached out to gently touch the scar on his face, where goodness-knows what happened. "But that was the past. That was my parents, not me. They're really great people if you get to know them. They made one mistake, they did one terrible thing but it doesn't make them terrible people. When we were toddlers, we loved each other and played and were babies together. We were true siblings together, and we could be like that again, it doesn't have to be hatred between us... Jostlenua?"
He had a stoic look on his face and was staring out Beyond. He looked at me and gestured his head for me to follow him, or so I assumed, and headed towards the middle of the campus, towards the Tree. When he got there, he just stood, still staring out in the distance. Once I came up next to him he shifted his gaze to up through the branches of the Tree.
