Authors: Lilian Carmine
“Enjoying the view?” he teased, his eyes burning as he watched me. “Because I’m sure enjoying mine,” he said, pointedly staring at the front of my shirt.
I tried to avoid blushing and failed miserably. “I wasn’t staring!” I quickly denied, which made my lie even more transparent. I pushed the sheets away and stood up, all flustered.
Tristan chuckled at my mortification and leaned over, grabbing me by my waist and pulling me back into bed with him. “I’m sorry, Joey. I didn’t mean to make you embarrassed. But you have been driving me crazy all these days, walking around in tiny towels, low dresses and tight jeans!” he said, pulling me into his arms, bridal style again. “Not to mention you have the most beautiful legs I have ever seen, and you look out-of-this-world-good in my T-shirt.” He buried his face in my neck and trailed soft kisses all over it.
I shivered and tried to squirm out of his grasp, afraid that he might catch on and make fun of me.
“All right! Okay! Stop it now. I need to go to the bathroom, and brush my teeth, and tame my hair, and take a shower, and … stuff.” Flustered, I wriggled out of his lap and got out of bed. “Apparently, we have a lunch appointment at the oak tree. Tiffany said she’ll come and get us if we’re late!” I warned, leaving him pouting on the bed.
“Do we really have to go? Can’t we just stay here in bed all day long?” he asked in a hopeful voice.
“No, we can’t, Cocoa Puffs,” I said, grazing my fingers through his hair.
He glanced up with a quirked inquisitive eyebrow. “Cocoa Puffs?”
“Yeah, I think I need to have a cute nickname for you, since you have one for me.” I smiled teasingly. “And Cocoa Puffs is my favorite thing in the mornings,” I said, pinching his cheeks, looking down at him hungrily so he would know he was my favorite thing in mornings too. “Plus, Cocoa is awesome because I love chocolate, and since you sometimes disappear into thin air, Puffs is quite fitting for you, don’t you think?”
He eyed me playfully, trying to stifle a laugh. “Since we are in the cereal-naming basis, couldn’t your favorite be Tony the Tiger?” he said, chuckling hard now. “Or Lucky Charms, or Captain Crunch! You can call me Tiger, Charms or Captain!” And he cracked up laughing at his own puns. One of Tristan’s favorite things about the twenty-first century was the amazing range of cereals he got to enjoy – he was like a big kid whenever Mom and I dragged him grocery shopping.
His face brightened again. “Maybe I can join you in the shower … to speed things up?” he suggested, full of eagerness and mischief.
I laughed at his hopeful voice. “I don’t think so, mister.” I tsked him, pushing him back on to his bed. “You already got lucky yesterday, but you owe me a proper date, you know? With dinner, movie, the whole shenanigans!” I chuckled, pointing my finger at him. “You caught me off guard yesterday, but don’t think I’m usually that easy!”
He blushed, a little embarrassed, and fumbled with his feet. “I-I don’t … You’re right. I haven’t been treating you right, Joey. I will give you the best date you ever had!” he promised me with a bright smile.
We both showered and dressed, but just as we were about to leave, Tristan’s face turned serious. “I was wondering if maybe now would be a good time for us to tell the whole truth about me and the magic ‘situation’ we’re in. To Seth, Josh, Sam, Harry and Tiffany. We can tell Seth and Tiff today at lunch. And we can tell the rest of the guys we’re not brother and sister too,” he blurted out, an anxious look on his face.
I stared at Tristan in silence, not knowing exactly what to say. “We know we can trust them. They’re like family, right?” he added. “I’m just sick of lying, Joey. I don’t want lie to them anymore. I don’t want to lie to people I care about any more,” he pleaded wholeheartedly.
I nodded, giving him a reassuring smile. “All right. They are family. We can trust them with this. And I’m sick of lying too. Let’s do this,” I agreed. To hell with all the secrets!
We headed to the oak tree, Tristan walking beside me with a sprint in his feet. He seemed very happy now that we were telling our friends everything. It seemed like a huge weight was lifted from his shoulders.
I could already see Seth sitting on the grass below the big oak tree, just a few feet away from us, with Tiffany right in front of him, with her back to us.
As we reached them, Tristan greeted Seth with their cool male handshake thing, but before we could all sit down, Tiffany jumped in with, “Okay, boys, you go along and buy us some food now.” That was my Tiff. Bossy to the core. “We’ll be here, you know, talking about random things, like school, grades, homework,
whathappenedwithyoutwo-lastnight
, essays for the semester, that sort of things,” she said sneakily.
Seth laughed and signaled to Tristan. “Okay, girl talk time, we’d better hurry off now.”
“Actually, we sort of have something really important to talk to you guys about first,” Tristan said, with a hesitant smile as we both sat down on the grass next to Tiffany. Seth gave us a curious look before sitting beside his anxious girlfriend. Tristan cleared his throat, and then he told then everything, while I leaned against the oak tree, watching them.
Their reactions raged from disbelief, to worry, reluctance, awe and finally settling for simple acceptance at the end. Seth’s eyes were a little wide and scared, but he seemed to genuinely accept everything we’d told them, while Tiffany looked mostly confused. There was this huge sense of relief after Tristan was done explaining things, like it was somehow easier to breathe now. I was actually really surprised at how easy this whole “secret reveal” had been. I always imagined that nobody in their right mind would ever believe us. But Seth and Tiffany accepted this extraordinary tale with such open hearts and minds, it was uncanny!
“Thank you so much for being our friends, for believing in us, for wanting to help us,” I said. “I can’t believe how lucky we are to have you in our lives,” I said in a choked voice. I was trying really hard not to cry. “And thank you for not thinking we are crazy people telling freaky ghost stories.”
“It’s all right, Joey. We believe in you. This actually explains a lot of questions we’ve been asking since we’ve met you two … and it’s so surreal, it must be true!” Seth said, wrapping an arm around me and looking curiously at Tristan. “But this sure explains Tristan’s weird illness every month, and your scary nightmares. Also Tristan’s wacky way of speaking, his old-fashioned habits, his complete and utter lack of technology knowledge … Yeah, it explains a lot,” he mused thoughtfully.
“Hey!” Tristan complained, a little miffed. “I think I’m ‘modernizing’ pretty well here! No one seems to be noticing that,” he grumbled, with an adorable pout. I tried hard not to giggle.
“Yeah, right. You’re still complete rubbish at Xbox! And sometimes you say things like ‘swell’, especially when you’re too excited over something. I thought it was the weirdest thing ever, but now that you’ve explained, it makes perfect sense,” Seth said, while we all laughed hard at Tristan’s flustered face.
We ate lunch then, sitting in the shade of the big oak tree, answering a bunch of questions they still had about Tristan and his past, our New Year’s story and everything that had happened after that. After a while we were laughing and feeling a lot more cheerful. Tristan sat glued to my side with a soft smile on his lips, while I leaned my head on his shoulder, and Seth and Tiffany bickered relentlessly over stupid little things. Watching my two friends snapping at each other, while Tristan stood protectively by my side, made me feel like everything was right in the world again.
Seth watched me lean against Tristan, and smiled. “I’m glad this stupid fight is over. I’m glad Joey put some sense back in that thick head of yours, man!” he said cheerfully to Tristan.
“I’m glad too,” Tristan replied, smiling.
“So, Joey, come on, tell me what happened last night after you guys left?” Tiffany asked excitedly. That was the part she’d been really dying to hear about. She was squirming, looking at me expectantly like she was about to explode with anxiousness.
I rolled my eyes at her lack of tact. “Well, we had a huge fight, then I made him confess and quit his stupid plan of pushing me away, for once and for all. And that’s because …” I trailed off and gave Tristan a pointed glare, egging him on to continue my sentence.
“Because ‘it was the stupidest plan ever in the entire history of the whole wide world’,” he chorused, rolling his eyes with a faint smile.
“Okay. There are a few Lost Boys that need to know all about this secret tale too,” I said, standing up. “Let’s call them into our room now, shall we?”
“I don’t know how we are going to make them believe us,” I muttered worriedly at Tristan. “What if they don’t accept it as easily as Tiff and Seth?” Twenty minutes had passed and I was still trying to gather courage to enter our room. Tristan was by my side, trying to be supportive. I could hear the boys’ voices muffled inside the bedroom. Tiffany’s high-pitched squeals, Sam’s loud laughs and Josh’s grave tone. Seth and Harry were inside too.
“They will, don’t worry, Joey. Let’s just do it, already!” he said, opening the door impatiently. Tristan pushed me inside and closed the door behind him.
“Hey, Grays! What took you so long! We’ve been waiting here for you two for ages! What’s this serious talk about?” Sam asked, sitting on the floor by the foot of Seth’s bed, wearing his customary brown flannel shirt. Seth was leaning against his headboard, holding Tiff in his arms, and they both had knowing looks on their faces.
“Yeah! Seth practically barked at us to come right away! What’s the big emergency?” Harry asked, sprawled over my bed. Harry was always on my bed, taking up all the space, the numbnuts. He was wearing his baggy skater shorts with a large T-shirt, his hair as wild as usual.
“It’s no emergency,” Tristan said, going to sit on his bed at the other side of the room. “We just wanted to talk to you guys.” If he was nervous, he didn’t show any signs of it. I had a butterfly riot in my stomach. Josh was in front of Tristan’s bed, fumbling inside the drawers, looking for something to eat. He had on his usual black T-shirt and dark jeans. “So, spill it, man!” Josh said, munching an ancient-looking cookie. That boy would eat just about anything.
Tristan eyed me, raising both eyebrows. I was still frozen in my spot by the door.
Well, the hell with it. It was now or never, right? I walked over to Tristan’s bed and sat on his lap. Tristan wrapped his arms around my waist and I turned my face, smiling at him. He leaned in and gave me a hard kiss on the lips. It wasn’t hot enough to be considered distasteful, but deep enough to leave no doubt about it being an “unbrotherly” kiss. I guessed that would be a good conversation starter!
Silence descended in the room like someone had just hit the mute button. I felt Tristan chuckling beneath my lips. “This is going to be fun,” he mused softly, ending the kiss and turning to look at the reactions in the room. I turned too, and watched three shocked faces staring at us, and two smiley ones. Harry had his mouth open, Sam had wide eyes and raised eyebrows, and Josh was frowning slightly.
“I knew something was going on between you two!” Josh was the first to speak. “I told you guys! And you wouldn’t believe me!” He made a smug gesture.
“Yeah, man, you told us they were hiding something. Uh, but did you seriously think of
that
?” Sam retorted in a freaked-out voice.
Harry was staring at me in shock, but when he caught me looking back, he diverted his gaze, embarrassed. “Yeah, that was seriously freaky, even for me,” he mumbled, obviously uncomfortable.
“Before anyone else freaks out, I have something to say!” Tristan said. “Joey is not my sister, and I’m definitely
not
her brother, okay?” He held up his hands.
“Come again?”
“Say what?”
“I’m sorry, what?”
The three boys replied at the same time.
“We had to lie to get Tristan accepted at the school,” I explained. “It was the only way to get him in.”
“Joey’s mom was cool enough to help me with this,” Tristan said, and then he turned to look at me. “I cannot thank her enough for all she has done for me,” he said softly. “I also need to thank her for having you. She gave the world the best gift ever,” he whispered the last line into my ear. I blushed and smiled and then he kissed me again softly on the lips.
“Oh, man! This is so messed up!” Sam shouted from the floor. “I know you just told us you’re not related, but it’s still so weird to watch you two … you know. Give us some time to adjust before you go swapping spit like that!”
Josh, Seth and Tiffany laughed at how freaked out Sam was about all this. Harry was still silent on my bed, watching everybody with cautious eyes.
“Hey, so that’s what the fuss was all about earlier in the year?” Josh said. He was a fast thinker. “We thought Joey had broken up with her boyfriend at her old school, and was very down for a while. We tried to cheer her up, and all,” he said.
“Oh, man! That’s right! That’s when Tristan dropped out of rehearsals! It all makes sense now!” Sam said, all excited, like he was solving a mystery murder crime.
“And the songs you two have been doing! Don’t take me wrong, they’re brilliant, but now that we can put the puzzle together, it’s kind of funny … I mean, sorry, not the fighting part, the story behind the lyrics part,” Josh said apologetically when he saw us frowning at him. Then he looked up at Tiff and Seth, and put yet another piece of the puzzle together. “Hey! And the golden couple over there knew about it all along, didn’t they?” Josh shouted, getting as excited with his discoveries as Sammy had been a minute ago.
Sam turned around to glare at Seth, and put his hand to his chest, faking hurt. “Oh, the betrayal!” he said theatrically.
“Sorry, dude. They made me swear. I couldn’t tell.” Seth held up his hands.
“What about Caroline?” Harry asked quietly, for the first time.
Tristan’s arm tensed around my waist, and his jaw clenched a little. “That was … a mistake,” he said quietly.
“But everything is fine now,” I cut in. I didn’t want
that
to be discussed in front of everybody. “And we thought it was time to tell you guys the truth, because we know you all can keep our secret.”