Chapter Three
Luke
The attic was dusty and
was the biggest mess I had ever seen. There were a bunch of boxes all around
the floor and all filled with things that I thought our parents got rid of. I
sneezed and cursed my allergies. I could feel myself having an asthma attack if
we didn’t hurry. I got started on the side opposite of Seth.
“Seriously?”
I looked at Seth and he
was holding a box labeled “Boys”. He put it down and opened it. I came over to
him and looked through it. He pulled out a picture of me and him in the tub
smiling. He tore it up and threw it on the floor. I went over and picked it up.
Things had not always been so bad between us. Up until the third grade we were
inseparable. We did everything together until Seth broke the bro code. There
was this girl with curly blonde hair who used to play with Seth and I. She was
perfect and everyone knew that I had the biggest crush on her. One day, I went
over to her house to give her a Valentine’s Day card but before I knocked I
heard her laughter in the backyard. I went out back and that is when I saw Seth
giving her a bear that said “Be Mine”. When she nodded my heart sank to the
bottom of my stomach and I ran home. After that, Seth and I were never the
same. He was going through our old box and throwing out every memory we had. I
held his hand back from ripping up a picture of us as thing one and thing two
on Halloween when we were 6. He looked at me and I could see his eyes all red.
He wiped them and went back to sorting.
“Stupid
dust got in my eye.”
I nodded and went to the
other part of the attic. I sorted through the rest of the boxes and by 12 we
were almost done. Suddenly, I heard the doorbell ring. I looked at Seth.
“I’ll get it.”
He ran downstairs and I
could hear him talking to someone and they didn’t sound too happy. I rolled my
eyes and went downstairs. At the door I saw Ashley who looked more than annoyed
at Seth. She saw me and ducked beneath his arm. She came up to me and pulled
her arms around my neck. She had her brace off so I bent down and kissed her.
Every time I kissed Ashley it was like fireworks in my mouth. I always had a
little crush on her, even with her braces and glasses but after last night I
knew that I actually loved her. She unwrapped herself from me and looked me in
the eyes. She was hands down more gorgeous than any girl I had ever seen,
including Leslie. I lightly stoked her face with my knuckles and she leaned
into me. She pulled away and handed me my t-shirt. I smiled.
“You could have kept it as like a souvenir or something.”
She shook her head.
“A souvenir is for something you only get to do once in your
lifetime and I am hoping that last night was not our last time.”
I smiled and bent down
to kiss her again. I loved this girl. Seth cleared his throat and we pulled
apart. Ashley turned to him.
“What?”
He motioned to the
attic.
“If I can’t get laid today then neither can he.”
He pointed to the door
as if telling her to get out. I rolled my eyes and
held her by the waist.
“You did get laid.”
He slammed the door and
marched up the stairs, trails of steam leaving his ears. Ashley turned to me.
“I better go. I wouldn’t want your brother to get too mad and
kill you. I mean there are no witnesses.”
She pulled away but I
held on tighter and groaned.
“I’ll risk it.”
She pecked me on the
lips and untangled herself from me.
“I’ll see you tomorrow. We have a math tournament. Love you.”
She looked up at me with
expecting eyes and my words got caught in my throat. I nodded and ran up the
stairs. I know that she watched after me but by the time I got to the attic I
heard the door close. I sat down and put my head in my hands.
“I am such an idiot.”
Seth laughed.
“Finally you get it!”
I looked up at him and
he must have realized that something was really wrong because he dropped what
he was doing and walked over to me.
“Dude
you look like shit. Did she dump you already?”
I shook my head.
“Worse.”
“Did she tell you that you sucked last night?”
I shook my head again.
“Ten times worse.”
He sat down next to me
and patted me on the back.
“What could be worse than that?”
I looked at him.
“She told me she loved me and I didn’t say it back.”
His face got all red and
then he burst out laughing. He fell back and was holding his stomach. I scowled
at him and punched him in the arm. I got up and started working again. We only
had one more box left so I told him to go get the broom. He nodded and headed
downstairs. I opened the box labeled “McLazer’s Life”. There were maps of Alaska
“Awe, what is that?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
I had never seen anything like it. It looked like sword but not quite. It was
long and silver but the handle was looked like it was made out of a blue
rhinestone. It was decorated with ancient symbols that looked pre-20th
century. I rubbed off the dust and realized that in the middle there was a red
ruby. Seth grabbed it from hands and started swinging it around.
“This is awesome! What do you think it is?”
I shrugged and held my
hand out.
“Give it back, Seth. We need to finish.”
He slapped my hand away
and shook his head.
“No way. This is too cool. I bet it’s like major old and is
worth big bucks.”
I
tried grabbing it from him but he is about five inches taller than me. I
finally gave up and he continued to mess around with it. I let out a huge sigh.
“Just go make us some lunch, please?”
He
let out a laugh.
“As long as you’re begging.”
I
rolled my eyes and continued to sort out the last box. As I was sweeping the
last bit of dust I heard Seth scream.
“WHAT THE FUCK?”
I
rushed downstairs and saw Seth standing in the kitchen over the sword thing. It
had shrunken and was the ruby was flashing and beeping quickly. The handle was
shining and I had to cover my eyes so that I wouldn’t go blind.
“Seth, what the hell did you do?”
“Nothing. I was just using it to cut the ham and I it started beeping.
Make it stop. You’re the genius.”
“Oh so now I’m a genius?”
“GET OVER YOURSELF AND FIX IT!”
“You yelling at me isn’t really
helping the situation.”
It stopped beeping and dimmed down. I
uncovered my eyes and went to go pick it up. As I bent down it started to beep
again and the last thing I saw was ham flying in the air.
Seth
I
wake in a bed of grass and it smells like shit. I open my eyes and realize that
I have a huge headache. I see the sun beaming down on me and I get up. Where am
I? There are trees everywhere and it doesn’t look like there is civilization
anywhere near here. I hear a groan and turn towards Luke. When I see him I
almost faint. I must be having a dream. He opens his light brown eyes and I
slap my face. I go to touch my hair and scream. Luke jumps up and focuses his
eyes on me. His eyes get wide and he scrambles away from me.
“Tell me that this is a dream.”
I
shake my head. I don’t know how this is possible but I can tell you that this
was the worst time of my life.
“OH GOD!”
Luke
got up and started pacing. I could tell he was thinking of some way for this to
be explained. He snapped his fingers and
I laughed; he was so cheesy. He rolled his eyes and spoke.
“The sword. It had to be the sword.”
I
nodded my head and we both started searching for the sword in the grass area.
We had no luck. Every once in awhile I would look over to Luke and see him
wiping his forehead. He wasn’t used to working out but my body was probably the
only thing helping him going. Finally too tired to go on, we both sat down.
“Dude, where the fuck are we?”
He
looked around and shrugged. We heard the sound of thunder and looked up just a
rain drop fell.
“I have no idea where we are but we
need to find shelter fast if we don’t want to get pneumonia.”
I
nodded and we headed into the forest. I had never seen so much green or ever
sneezed so much. Every sneeze brought a new laugh to Luke. Tired of hearing him
laugh because his stupid body had allergies, I punched him in the arm. I had
never felt so much excruciating pain in my life. I fell to the ground and held
my wrist. Luke turned around and I could tell that he was holding back a laugh.
“SHUT UP. IT HURTS.”
He
shrugged.
“You’re telling me?”
I
rolled my eyes and got up. We continued on into the forest. I couldn’t stop
looking at Luke. If I had known that I was that handsome, I would have tried
harder for hotter girls, maybe even hotter woman.
“I am tired.”
He
shrugged.
“I’m not so we keep going.”
“You aren’t because you have my
stamina. Don’t make me suffer because you haven’t worked out a day in your
life.”
He
turned around and started to say something but something behind me caught his
eye. His eyes got huge and he dragged me behind a bush. We watched as men on
high horses passed us in their armor that looked like it was from one of those
corny King Arthur movies. The man in the front had a girl draped over the back
of his horse. She had a bag over her head and her wrists were tied together
with ropes. The rest of the men followed, each dressed as if they were going to
loser convention. They passed us and headed off further in the woods. Luke got
up and started running after them.
“WHERE ARE YOU GOING?”
“THEY HAVE TO LIVE SOMEWHERE!”
I
rolled my eyes and continued after him. The nerds obviously didn’t have
anywhere to live because they stopped a couple of miles after we had seen them
and it looked like they were making camp. I told Luke that this was worthless
and that we should go back. He shook his head.
“We stay here and find out where they live.
Maybe they can help us.”
I
shook my head.
“Luke, don’t be an idiot. There
has to be some nerd convention in town or something.”
“They look like they are dressed
for a Renaissance fair and I specifically know that there are none in town.”
“How do you know that we are in
our town? This doesn’t look like any place in New York
He
shrugged his shoulders.
“I am telling you. Something
doesn’t feel right. I don’t think that these guys are dressed up for some
convention.”
I
laughed.
“Even in my hot body, you still
manage to be a loser.”
I
yawned and decided that I should sleep off whatever this sickness was. As I was
drifting off to sleep I heard Luke speak.
“Good idea. You should sleep
because you have next shift.”
I
chuckled and fell asleep. I was woken up by something poking my side.
“Not now, Leslie. I’m too tired.”
The
poking got harder and I tossed and turned. This girl was relentless.
“Leslie, I’m serious, stop.”
“Who is this Leslie you speak
of?”
I
jumped up and looked around me, searching for the person responsible for the
booming voice. I focused my eyes and saw the nerds on the horses from the night
before pointing their swords at me. I looked around for Luke and saw him with a
knife to his throat being held hostage by the man with the girl on the back of
his horse. He looked terrified, which was not a good look for my face. He mouthed
something to me and I squinted and shook my head.
“They are trying to communicate!
Tape the handsome one’s mouth and tie the other up.”
They
tied my hands together and took me and Luke to their horses. I laughed as I
finally got what Luke was trying to tell me: “I don’t think we are in Kansas
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