A Little Something Different

September (Gabe's brother)

Sam- Gabe's brother

“So, how’s your first day back going?” I ask.

He shrugs. My brother has never been much of a talker but in the past ten months he’s pretty much gone mute.

“No, seriously, you have to tell me something to tell mom, or else she’s not going to believe me that I took you out for lunch. She’s gonna think I kept the money to buy a keg or something.”

“Take a picture of me eating,” he mutters.

“Or you can tell me something about your day.” I pull on his arm to get him to stop and actually look at me. “As your older brother, it is well within my rights to force you to talk.”

He sighs. “Fine, tell her that I’m more tired than I expected, but that’s what happens when you sit on the couch for ten months. But everything else is going really, really well.”

         “You’re tired?” I prod. Gabe is not a sharer. Gabe a holder-inner. A holder-inner who is punching me in the arm. “Ow!”

“Why can’t she ask me herself?”

“Because she thinks you lie to her.”

“Whatever. Why are we still talking about this?”

As we’re about to turn off the green, a girl sitting on a bench waves at Gabe and me. Mostly at Gabe, I’d imagine, because I’ve never seen her before in my life.

He waves back, so I guess it was meant for him.

“Who’s that?”

“Just some girl,” he says.

“We should invite her to lunch! She’s not doing anything.” I turn back towards her and he grabs for my backpack to haul me around.

“No we will not.”

“You’re never gonna get a girl if you ignore them.”

“I didn’t ignore her.”

“I think she’s talking to that squirrel.”

“She’s… quirky.”

“How do you know her?”

“She's in my creative writing class.”

“Oh. Excellent How was that class?”

He smiles at that. “It was pretty good actually. Aside from the fact that I was almost late because I had no idea there were two levels of basement in the English building.”

“Oh, sub-basement classes. Yeah, I’ve been there. They’re in many fables, but few have experienced them. I heard there’s a clan of mermaids who lives in one of the bathrooms.”

I’m surprised when Gabe laughs out loud at that. It’s really not a great joke to begin with and he hasn’t been a big laugh out louder recently. He just hasn’t been Gabe. I’ve tried to explain that to our mom, but I don’t think she gets it. I think she assumes there’s more she could, or should be doing, but the secret is that there isn’t. This is something Gabe needs to deal with in his own way.

“Anyway, the professor seems cool and the other kids seem okay. It might not be so bad.”

As we approach the diner, I want to get one last sentiment out, even though I know he’s going to sort of hate me for it.

“You’re allowed to talk about it you know.”

He rolls his eyes. “I promise I know.”