three of a kind.

3.

June 17, 1989.

i walked down Elm drive on my daily stroll to get away from my household, it was a quiet neighborhood and not many people spent time outdoors. the blistering heat in the middle of June often became overwhelming in Los Angeles and it's residents stayed locked in their homes under air conditioning most of the time. as i began to walk past the boy's house, i noticed the vehicles belonging to Kitty and Jose' weren't parked in the driveway so i decided to see if lyle and erik were home.

i knocked loudly on the front door 3 times, letting them know it was me but got no answer. right as i started to walk away, the door rattled open to reveal lyle on the other side, dressed in swimming trunks and nothing more.

"hey! i called you just a minute ago but you didn't answer." he took a sip from a nearly empty beer bottle, "we're having a pool party later, my dad told me to invite you and your parents."

lyle moved out of the doorway, allowing me to step inside and get out of the boiling heat. i looked around the living room to see an assortment of snacks and alcoholic beverages laid on the coffee table.

"i took a walk, sorry i missed your call but that sounds like fun." i smiled, taking a beer bottle from the case and twisting the lid open. "i'll tell my dad when he comes home, i'm sure we'll be there."

"good shit, erik is out back by the way." lyle said, heading upstairs to his room.

"thanks!" i called after him, walking through the kitchen and out back where i saw erik. he and lyle were wearing almost identical blue swimming trunks, except erik's blended in with the color of the Calabasas sky. he was skimming their ginormous pool for any debris before the guests arrived, and therefore didn't notice me coming outside.
the boy did a double take, noticing my presence. "jesus christ quit sneaking up on me." he chuckled, setting the pool skimmer to the side.
"not my fault you're unaware of your surroundings"
erik subtly gave me the finger as he grabbed the beer i had been holding, taking a long sip. his eyes started to wander up my arm where he honed in on a dark mark on my shoulder. i could see his face sink to the floor, almost as if he was about to cry. "rose."
"i'm fine." i waved him off, giving the best reassuring smile i could muster.
   "will you come with me to the tennis court?"
i was confused by his question, but agreed nonetheless. i followed erik on the decent walk from the pool to the tennis court, where he finally sat down and patted the ground for me to do the same.
"you know how, a couple weeks ago you told me about your dad?" he questioned, looking anywhere but my eyes.
"yeah?"
"i have a secret too. my dad, he does things to me. terrible things. and, i felt so bad for not telling you all these years, but he made me swear on my life.. and lyle's.. that i wouldn't." he paused for a moment as if he was going to leave it at that.
"what kind of things erik?" i asked, grabbing his hand from the pavement & holding it in my lap.
he tilted his head up, trying to stop the tears in his eyes from running down his cheeks. "well, um. sometimes when i do something wrong or he was a bad day at work he comes in my room, and makes me undress.. and he makes me.. um, do things to him. and sometimes he'd do them to lyle.. but it was usually me. i'm sorry i didn't tell you before i should've-"
i didn't want to hear anymore of what he had to say, i pulled his head into my chest and held him their for what felt like minutes as he began to sob. we both began to sob, we just sat there. suddenly, my two best friends in the whole world felt like strangers, like i knew nothing about them and everything i thought i knew was a misconception.
"listen," erik finally sat his head up, "you can't tell lyle okay? or anyone. promise me you won't tell."
"i promise." i reassured him, pressing my head against his.
what the fuck is going to happen now?

erik and i gathered our composure, i smudged the blotches of mascara off my eyes and he tried to rub the puffiness out of his the best he could. we walked back through the menendez yard briskly, not wanting to raise any questions as to where we ran off to. when he and i finally made it back to the pool, kitty and jose menendez had returned home; along with my father. lyle and perry were thrashing around in the water, tossing a football back and fourth and shouting profanities at each other. 

"goodness me!" kitty exclaimed in discontent as the pool water had splashed all over her top of the line swimsuit. 

"boys!" jose bellowed at lyle, so much so that it wouldn't surprise anyone if the whole block had heard him, "we have guests! do not make me get onto you again." 

lyle and perry both mumbled a faint 'yes sir' and carefully carried on with their game. 

it was about that time when our parents noticed erik and i, standing on the outer edge of the pool. we came that way in an attempt to pretend like we had been there the whole time, but by the distasteful looks on both of our father's faces it was to no avail.

"you two are always late to everything huh?" jose chuckled, passing it off as a joke. however, i don't think i could ever overlook his sarcasm and bitter joking again. 

"sorry sir, erik and i went to clean off the tennis court in case anyone wanted to watch the boys play later." i interjected, saving erik the trouble. he was a stuttering, mumbly mess when it came to lying to his father. 

jose grinned, "i think that would be a great idea. thank you, rose."

i nodded, giving him a slight smile back. it irked me that he didn't thank erik as well, but i let it be. i joined perry who was sitting poolside sipping on a cold beer, taking one for myself as i soaked everything in. Wild Thing by Tone Loc was blasting through the air as the sun beat down on our chest, the clear pool water splashing up against our ankles and the faint sound of our parents cutting up with one another in the background. 

Perry and i spent a while talking about this and that, what he was going to do for summer, if he was going to college or ever just pick one girl to settle down. he didn't have an answer for any of it. 

"wait wait, so you dropped emily off while allison was at the bus stop one street over waiting for you?" i laughed, bewildered by the fact that he still hadn't dated everyone in beverly hills yet. 

"i didn't know they lived that close!" he defended, flailing his arms, laughing along with the tragedy of the whole situation, "hell, they're probably best friends and told each other about it."

i rolled my eyes back at him, "you're gonna get beat up by a bitch one day."

"nah if they're friends, more for me. if you catch my drift." he winked.

i shoved his arm back giggling, disgusted at times that i even associated with him. the boys loved him, and i was fond of him myself. he was a royal pain though. "you're sick. hey where did lyle and erik go?"

perry shrugged, "dunno, they went in the house about 20 minutes ago."

i hopped up from the poolside, skipping to the back patio door while the concrete slabs burned my bare feet. the back door was unlocked, and i could distantly hear the brothers having an unpleasant conversation upstairs. i followed the sound of their voices into lyle's room, where i was taken aback by what i saw.

lyle had erik held by his arm harshly, yelling in his face about something i couldn't make out. "you told her?!" lyle yelled, practically nose to nose with his younger brother. 

"we can trust her lyle-"

before erik could finish his sentence he found himself pressed against the bedroom wall. lyle's forearm pushing against his chest as he seethed at him, " i should fucking kill you." 

for a split moment i thought he was going to tear erik a new one, but instead pulled his arm off of him and turned to face me. 

"you say one word, to anyone about anything-" lyle started, but couldn't bring himself to say what he was initially going to say, "just go home rose."

tears formed into my eyes, what was once my source of comfort was gone as i looked into lyle's eyes. they were empty, he had never been this hurt. "lyle i-"

"i said leave!" 

i took a last glace at erik who had tears running down his cheeks, before bolting out of the door. i almost fell down their staircase, my eyes were completely blurred by the stinging tears. i never stopped running until i got all the way into my bedroom, and shut my eyes and went to sleep.