When Things Turn Dark

Chapter 5

Nat sighed, glancing back at Nerezza for maybe the thirteenth time in a row. She was such a good friend, but hearing that tone of voice from her always made her senses prick up. It's the tone of voice people use when they're on the verge of saying they're dying of something. It always made Nat brace herself to cry, or to at least expect the worst. Another sigh escaped her parted lips, as she felt something on the side of her cheek. She always seemed to know when someone was looking at her, it made crowds very annoying, but besides then it came in handy a lot. People called her the social dog, and people would call Nerezza the social cat from their behavior around fellow humans.
Nerezza was glancing back at her friend, she had to admit that Nat was quite funny looking whenever she was concentrating on anything. She got the most dumbfounded look on her features, as if she was a baby hamster seeing something for the first time. It always made her laugh much too hard, which is exactly what happened.
"What? Am I missing something?" Nat said, pretending to be irritated.
"Oh no, you're missing nothing Ms. Spacey-Hamster face!" Nerezza said in a very happy-go-lucky tone.

Nat chuckled, she had forgotten Nerezza's silly name she would always call her, it was nice to see Nerezza being silly. Nat usually felt uncomfortable when Nerezza was serious, she thought this was probably from it happening so rarely. As the sun disappeared, they both went back inside. Nerezza was just starting to wonder why Nat's mother wasn't calling for dinner when they could both hear "Nat, Alex, dinner's ready!" and both of them hurried downstairs.

When they reached the bottom, they saw Alex sitting at the dinner table with Nat's mom scooping slices of shitty Pizza Hut pizza onto paper plates. Nat's mom never really was an excellent cook anyway.
"Hello Sister and Nerezza," Alex said, turning his head to them. His eyes had massive bags underneath them and his black hair never really covered them like he wanted. Nat simply rolled her eyes.
"Speak normally for once. You know if you do, People would actually hang out with you," Nat said plopping down in the chair across from him. Nerezza gracefully sat next to her, smiling at Alex.

Alex noticed the smile but didn't care to acknowledge it, he was more interested at what hid beneath the smile and the fake happy eyes. Nat's mom started setting out more plates and passed around pizza. Nerezza looked at the pizza, she never understood why people would think she's an alien for not liking pizza, it just wasn't very good, Nat felt the same way. Alex had been staring at Nerezza for a while and it was creeping Nat out.
"What are you doing? She's not some specimen to observe, you weirdo!" Nat yelled.
"You can learn a lot by staring people directly in the face, Nerezza actually taught me that," Alex replied.
"Don't worry Nat, it's fine. It's not like he's staring at me in the changing room at school or something," Nerezza joked as Alex blushed and started shoving pizza into his mouth rapidly.
"Gosh, you seem hungry Alex," Nat's mom said while scooping more pizza onto his plate. Nat usually didn't notice Alex's strange behavior when Nerezza was around, but this time it stuck out.
"Alex... no..." Nat said out of the blue.
"No what?"
"You know."
He laughed dopily out loud, and then realized what he had just done.

Nerezza looked at him skeptically. Alex stopped and just covered his embarrassment by taking a swig of his water. Nat groaned, she really didn't need this right now, or ever, but if it was going to happen why now?
"Also, about that changing room thing? I would've been on the floor laughing if he didn't actually do that once Nerezza..." Nat said, causing her brother to choke on his water. He effectively drenched the two girls, much to their annoyance.
"NAT WHY WOULD YOU BRING THAT UP!?" He screeched at the top of his lungs. Nerezza actually laughed, making both of the other teens laugh as well. Nerezza did always seem to carry laughter like a disease. Her laugh infected anyone in the area because of the tiny little snorts in between ha's.
"Well, what the hell was the story behind that?!" Nerezza said, gasping for air.
Alex quickly turned scarlet, laughing nervously.
"He was trying to read someone's mind or he was trying to hex them when someone he knew walked into the changing room."
"I- Um it...Cariline It was... She had done something really mean to one of my friends... So I kinda... Wanted to curse her but..."
"Yeah... You didn't see anyone else right?" Nerezza said with a slight giggle. Alex turned redder, indicating he had.
"I saw... everyone in her P.E..." Alex muttered, making Nerezza turn pink, knowing Cariline was in her own physical education class.
"You really are super socially awkward, aren't ya bro? How you had friends for her to mess with is beyond me," Nat said leaning back in her chair, taking a bite of the cheesy mess from her plate to lighten the mood.

Alex sank down into his chair as Nerezza starting eating. Nat's mom had been holding back her laughter, the ordeal reminded her that her husband wasn't present for dinner.
"Alex, dear, did you see your father before dinner?"
"He's still fixing the lock on the door," Alex answered meekly, sinking into the dining chair.
"HONEY! DINNER IS READY AND HAS BEEN FOR A FEW MINUTES! WE HAVE COMPANY OVER TO!" Laura yelled.
They heard a little thump before Nat's dad walked in from the darkening front yard.q
"It's a real bitch to fix a lock at night," He said before sitting down at the only available chair next to Alex.
"Maybe you should bring out a flashlight like most people would," Laura answered while slipping pizza onto his plate.
"Don't judge my ways of living, Laura, I am amazing!" Nat's father said in a silly voice to his wife, quoting the first movie Laura and him had seen together.
"Anyway, how's your mother doing Nerezza?" Laura asked.
"Fine."
The tone of Nerezza's voice made almost everyone stop eating, except Nat's father who was starving. Alex was the first to respond.
"Soooooooo... school was boring today, I assume?"
"If you consider summer break school, then yes it was," Nerezza answered making Alex sink lower into his chair.
Nat's father looked confused but continued eating, he didn't care much for drama, that was Laura's thing, he just was a shitty repair man.

"Well then, where did you two go today?" Alex asked, pushing a piece of his raven locks from his eyes. Both girls looked to each other, slightly uncomfortable.
"We were just out... Shopping?" Nat replied, unconvincingly, but everyone picked up the fact the girls didn't feel like talking about it. The subject was luckily dropped.
"How was the sunset girls?" Nat's father asked.
"It was beautiful as always Mr. Pierce!" Nerezza said with a warm smile. Nat nodded as a response, shoving more of the crappy pizza into her mouth. Sure it was awful, but she was really hungry.
"Oh right, Nerezza have you seen my new pet yet?" Alex asked.
"I don't believe I have," she said looking to the black haired teen. He stretched out one of his arms, making his sleeve quiver in response. A long line seemed to be slithering itself out of his sleeve until it got to his cuff. A small green serpent head popped out of the purple fabric with a hiss.
"What!? Where'd he get a garden snake?!" Nat yelled slightly too loud.
"The garden, you answered your own question, dummy."

Nat clenched a fist, ready to punch Alex, when Nerezza chuckled.
"He's adorable, have you named him yet?" Nerezza asked.
"It's a he?" Alex said.
"I'll take that as a no, you haven't named him yet."
"No, I did, but his name is genderless since I couldn't tell. His name is Yang."
"That's a sweet name, anyway, we just got a cute baby lamb. The neighbor down the street named him Lamby, not very creative but the kid was four. The lamb's been keeping dad busy."
"May I ask why the neighbor got to name the lamb, Nerezza?" Laura asked.
"Timothy is... leaving soon and he really wanted to see a sheep, so I told him he could name the lamb."
"That's very generous of you."
Everyone had finished dinner by now, so they all pitched in and helped clean up except Mr.Pierce, who grumpily walked out to finish fixing the front door's lock.

Laura laughed at her husband's grumpy antics. Alex went back to sulking in his room. He normally only left his room for meals nowadays anyway, and maybe the occasional shower. The two girls walked back up to Nat's bedroom. Nat took her normal spot on her bed and Nerezza sat on the pale purple bean bag at the center of the room.
"Hey, Nerezza?"
"Yeah?"
"Why were you asking me about twins earlier? It seemed a little out of the blue, so I figured I'd ask..."
"How about I tell you in the morning if you remind me?"
"FIIIIIIIINE," Nat said in an exasperated tone, flopping backwards onto her bed.