Of Love, Lies, and Dreamers

Sorry for the delay all. School is crazy. As a side note, inner thoughts shall now be indicated with ‘…’, as opposed to the “…” for things said out loud. ‘My goodness! Why didn’t I think of this earlier? I could have saved everyone a lot of time and trouble. Darn, now I’m gonna have to go back and fix this in the horrible previous chapters. I don’t feel like doing that… Hmm, I know, I’ll have to distract the readers so they don’t notice that I’m being lazy. Wait, I have an idea!’ Hey readers, look over here, a new chapter.'
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Daniel and Mark silently exited the building with the other test takers. While some of the students were jovially talking amongst themselves, many were as taken aback by the procedure as the brothers. Daniel knew they would have to talk about what had just happened but didn’t know where to start. The bright sunlight momentarily blinded them as they stepped through the doors at the top of the stairs that led to the sidewalk, forcing them to pause, blinking rapidly while gaining their bearings. The cold brush of air from the uncharacteristically early cold front made Mark glad he remembered to bring a jacket. As they made their way down the marble stairs an audible groan came from the region of Daniel’s stomach.

“Let’s grab a bite to eat” Mark exclaimed in response to the gurgling sound from his brother’s stomach. “I think I saw a pizza joint on the way over.”

“God, I thought you’d never ask! All that brainwork drained all my energy reserves. I need to restock before I collapse on the sidewalk.”

It was at this point that Mark noticed the variety of people that were sitting on the large stair case and around the building. The small grassy nook in between their test building and its neighbor had students on it. And it wasn’t just student’s, there was even one of the annoying hobos, bothering students as they left the building and a business woman yelling at someone on her blackberry. While he had thought it odd before that no one was near the building when they entered, it was even more confusing that people were present now that they were back.

As they moved toward the proposed lunch spot with Mark puzzling over this change, however, Daniel noticed a short boy with spiked brown hair. His diminutive figure was almost feminine in shape and Dan remembered seeing him in the test. With little thought he jogged over to where the boy was talking on his phone. This interrupted any chance Mark might have at seeking his brother’s opinion on the buildings change in atmosphere

Seeing Daniel’s sudden B-line for their fellow student, Mark smacked his head in frustration. He immediately knew what was going on and figured they wouldn’t spend much time talking about the test considering the new company. A quick sigh of frustration left his mouth as his suspicions were confirmed. Daniel had seen a sweet piece of ass and the horn dog’s brain left the building, well, sidewalk in this case. What’s more, the tight jeans hugging his lean body, tight cut of the shirt under his jacket, and a general presence of any attention to clothing were all good signs he might not mind Daniel’s attentions.

‘Oh, well,’ Mark thought, ‘at least I get to enjoy the eye candy during lunch. And he is quite the exquisite truffle. Just about my height, maybe a little smaller, and that bubble but hugging those jeans. Yummy. After all that test stress I could use some fun. Hell, maybe I’ll even sweep him out from under that idiot’s nose. Finding a date on the first day here would be acceptable cosmic return on my emotional investment, with beating Daniel at his own game as an additional bonus.’

With these, more positive, thoughts in mind, Mark joined his brother propositioning him. As he walked up Daniel informed him, “This is Colton. He went to the feeder high school for Crestor. I was trying to convince him to join us for lunch, but he seems to be balking. I might need you to help me kidnap him for this dangerous outing, where we will force him to risk life, limb, and economic well-being for the sake of a slice of pizza.”

“Fine, fine, you’ve convinced me I’ll go,” was Colton’s exasperated reply, but while he acted exasperated, the amusement twinkling in his eyes put the lie to his words. “I can never say no to a set of puppy dog eyes.”

“Ahhh, such a pity, I was looking forward to tying you up and leaving you helpless to my dastardly purposes,” was Daniel’s lewd reply.

Hearing this, all Mark could think was that their new friend would flee at this obvious proposition, but was surprised to see that all he got was bright red blush that covered Colton’s face.

‘Oh ho,’ thought Mark, ‘it looks like Daniel got lucky and found someone who’s interested. Well that or he is just oblivious to what Daniel wants, but we can work with either of those options.’ “I was thinking about a pizza joint we passed on the way to the test, but since you’re from this area I bet you know of somewhere better.”

"Well if you walked along MLK Avenue than you picked a good spot. That would be Little Gino’s. They have the best slice in town. You guys couldn’t pick a better choice if you actually new the campus. Let me just tell my driver that I’ll be a while and we can head out.” With that he jogged over to a black Mercedes Benze sitting on the sidewalk. As he spoke with the man in a black and white pin stripe suit about his new lunch plans the two brothers gave each other a surprised looks.

“Well I guess you found yourself a sugar daddy,” Mark chuckled with an amused grin spreading across his face.

“Oh shut up, how was I to know he was rich, I was just looking to have lunch with a fellow classmate instead of my annoying brother.”

“And looks had nooooothing to do with it. I’m sure you made your selection purely on conversationally ability.” Mark’s chuckles were steadily turning into a full bodied laugh as he saw how annoyed his brother was getting. “Oh settle down lover boy, I know your no gold digger, probably a horn dog but, that’s all.”

Mark had to duck under the swing of his brother’s fist at the conclusion of his jibe. Quickly backing away to avoid any punishment for mocking his brute of a brother, Mark stuck out tongue and danced just outside of the attempts to put him in his place.

“Hmph, I don’t have to listen to you. Obviously he is smart because he’s going to this school. I have the purest intentions, and clearly Colton likes me enough, so why would I care up what you think?”

“Pure intentions? There are none more blind than those who refuse to see,” Mark said with mock gravity. “Perhaps he just felt bad for the lonely puppy looking for attention.”

Mark’s quips about his brother were cut short, however, as Colton left his driver by the car. Changing the target for his joking Mark gave a long whistle in the direction of Colton’s car. Colton flushed an alluring shade of pink and mumbled something about his parent’s car and them forcing him to take a driver with him.

“Don’t be jealous. He’s just trying to hide a hard on for your car. Hidden beneath the sarcastic, small as a green bean exterior lies a car freak. Just being around that car sent him to cloud nine.”

It was Daniel’s turn to run away at this point as Mark yelled after him, “green bean am I? As soon as I catch you I’ll turn you into squash.”

“Just so long as you don’t artichoke him,” Colton commented, stopping the chase in mid-stride. Both boys looked at him for a moment at which point Mark burst out laughing.

“Oh this guy’s a keeper,” he gasped between laughs. “A real punny guy. Daniel just loooooves puns. You two will get along perfect.”

“I don’t mind them that much. What I mind is yoooour puns. They are atrocious. Punny? Gag me with a spoon.”

“Don’t let him fool you, I’m his favorite comedian. He wants me to go on tour.”

“As long as I’m not the one hearing your jokes I would pay for your plane ticket myself. Although they might put me on trial for crimes against humanity if I did.”

Colton’s melodious laughter filled the air as the twins antics continued. “Maybe the two of you should do a show. You could be the next Abbot and Castello. ”

“Ah yes, I can see it now. Wonder Twin powers activate. Form of a stark raving loon. I love Daniel like a brother, for obvious reasons, but working together… forever…would be hell.”

“Then why are you going to school together?”

“Ah well, Danny boy here isn’t ready to be all on his own yet. Someone had to burp him and give him a blanket.”

“And who could find Mark’s pacifier? He get’s cranky if he doesn’t have a binky for nap time.”

“Also without regular meals, so why don’t we finish the sparring match on the way to food.”

“Yeah, I can only make Steve, that’s the driver, wait for so long,” Colton replied, moving with the brothers along the sidewalk. A quick glance in the direction his driver left emphasized the guilt of the statement.

Sensing this shift in the conversation, Daniel made an effort to shift the mood. Hooking his arms into Mark’s arm on his right and Colton’s on his left he chimed, “I suppose that means we’re off to see the wizard. Mark, heartless bastard that he is, can be the Tin Man and Colton, being the cutest of the group can be Dorothy.”

“Dorothy!”

“Heartless!”

Mark and Colton yelled at the same time. To which they all found themselves laughing.

“Well I may be heartless, and no one can argue Colton’s good looks, but is also clear who you are.”

Noticing an impending joke, and wanting to get a little revenge, Colton “innocently” asked, “whoever could that be Mark?”

“Why Colton, isn’t it obvious he is the scarecrow. If he only had a brain.”

“Well I suppose I deserve that, but to think that the two of you are teaming up poor brainless me. I thought my dashing good looks and charming personality would guard against such cruel exploitation, but I suppose jealousy knows no bounds.”

The friendly banter continued until they made it to the pizza shop. Entering through the glass doors of the entrance their noses were enchanted by a variety of greasy, wondrous odors.

“Kill me now. This is the high point of my life. It’s all downhill from here.” Mark opined.

“Wait till you actually get the food, it gets better. The only possible explanation is they put opium in the pies. My uncle blames his weight problems on Gino’s cooking. You might find yourselves addicts if you don’t watch yourselves.”

“Well, I’ll keep that in mind, but you don’t have to worry about Mark. He could eat a pound of lard every day, not exercise for a month, and stay the same weight. It’s so unfair.”

“This again? Jeez, I thought you given up this stupid thing.”

“Well it seems only fair that we should get equally good metabolism since we were born at the same time.”

“You were adequately compensated with all of the height genes. I should get some meager reward.”

Mark’s succinct retort was filled with the weight of bad blood, and it was clear that he was no fan of this argument. The issue of who got the best genes one where he felt he got the short stick. This might have led to something more heated with emotion than their usual jabs if Colton didn’t curiously interject in the growing storm.

“Wait, you guys are actually twins? I thought you were just close brothers and one of you skipped a grade or something. You look nothing alike. I mean, maybe a slight familial resemblance.”

“Fraternal twins,” they said in unison, obviously having gone through this exact conversation a million times before, “and we don’t know who is older, our parents wouldn’t tell us. They said it would just cause trouble.”

“Creepy. The way you guys do that at the same time actually makes you seem more like evil twins.”

“Actually, I’m the evil twin.

“No, no, no. You were the evil one last week, Mark. This week I’m the one who gets to do all sorts of bad things,” he said with a wink. “For instance I get to order a large half bacon half pepperoni pizza and there is nothing you two can do about it. Bwahahahahaha.”

Taking the queue from Daniel’s joke, the cashier promptly asked if they wanted drinks with that. Even as he was answering in the affirmative, Daniel smoothly slipped the cashier cash before Colton or Mark could pull out their wallets.

“Well gosh, looks like I’m buying lunch, that money just slipped out of my hand. I wonder how it got their?”

“You know I could have paid for that. You didn’t have to..”

“Ah but what kind of gentleman would force their company to pay after inviting them out. I have an obligation after putting you through the inconvenience of my company.”

A deep red blush highlighting his pale features, Colton stammered a quick thank you and fled to the soda machine with the cup Daniel had handed to him.

The brother’s chuckled at this display and followed along. The small room was crowded with tables, which were in turn surrounded by people. Every sort of person imaginable filled the room, and it was a wonder that they all fit in. Thankfully the fresh bread, and cooking cheese suffused the room, or else the hobos sitting around one table might have detracted from the atmosphere with their lack of cleanliness.

Even with the overriding scent of pizza, however, the young men avoided the area where the dirty men sat. Colton gave a shout when he saw an open table and the three rushed over to it. Considering how busy the place was they were quite lucky to get a window seat. It afforded a great view of the people as they walked by pizza joint and would be perfect for people watching.

Just as they were about to sit down, however, another group of students rested hold of their chairs. In Colton’s case they literally took it from the smaller boy’s hands as he was pulling it out to sit down. Only one of them was bigger than Daniel, but they were all tall, and as a group they had a nasty look about them. They were clearly looking for a fight, which was emphasized by the statement of a brunette in the group.

Shorter than the other bullies by a head, he was of similar stature to Mark and Colton. His face seemed to be permanently set in a smile that never reached his eyes. While the others in his group were wearing regular jeans and sweaters, he wore a full length coat, covering a suit and tie. The two button suit was of clearly exceptional quality and the outfit’s dark shade of black accentuated the paleness of his skin.

“This table is taken losers. We don’t want any college dropouts here.”

Confused by this statement but still hoping to avoid a fight if at all possible Mark calmly said, “I’m afraid you have us confused with someone else friend. We were just accepted here, so we can’t possibly be dropouts. Regardless, we were already at this table so it is only fair that you find your own.”

“Well I like this table, and you may not know it yet, but it’s a foregone conclusion that you all failed. The only reason they let people take the entrance exam other then members of the feeder school is to get funding from the government. No one who doesn’t go to Crestor University’s High School gets in. So you should hurry along back to whatever podunk towns you came from and stop bothering your betters.” As he finished his insult he took a seat at the table and motioned for his posse to join him.

“I’ll show you who’s a dropout,” Mat shouted. “I worked real hard to get into this university, so you better wipe that annoying smirk off your face or I’ll kick your ass straight back to my “podunk” town. Then we’ll see how uppity you feel.”

One of the leader’s bullish companions stepped aggressively towards Daniel at that point, cracking his knuckles, while the leader chuckled from the seat he had taken. His chestnut hair fell in wavy puffs around his face and bounced from side to side with the shakes of head as he responded.

“Now, now, boys, I’m sure he didn’t mean that. He just doesn’t realize the position he’s in. You didn’t mean that, did you big guy? I bet he’s just upset about his early…”retirement”… from college.”

Seeing how angry Daniel was becoming as the speech continued, Colton quickly grabbed the brothers by their arms and dragged them from the table with quick tugs.

“That’s right,” Colton interjected. “He didn’t mean anything by it. You can have the table. I think there is another one over there Daniel. Let’s grab it before someone else does.” Than in a whispered tone he told the brothers, “I see another table over there. There is no point in fighting over something so stupid. I don’t want to get thrown out of here before I eat. Come on guys, this is stupid.”

“That’s right Daniel, scurry away to the corner,” sneered the blond, and his minions obligingly laughed at his comments, joining him at their stolen table.

“You should have let me kick their asses,” Daniel fumed as they walked to another table. “God, I’d love to wipe the smirk off his face.”

Luckily, a family really had exited the restaurant just as the conflict had started, leaving a table open before Daniel had a chance to go back and pick a fight. As they sat down a brunette slid up behind them with their pizza on a big silver tray. Setting the pizza down on the table with paper plates, napkins and utensils the long legged beauty kissed Colton on the head, murmuring her thanks to him for circumventing an awkward situation for the store owners.

His face once again covered in a furious blush, Colton explained. “Thanks for not fighting with them. I would hate to cause trouble for Gino and Gwen. Gwen is the one who brought us the food. She is Gino’s daughter and we’ve known each other for years. She and I went to middle school together; otherwise we wouldn’t have gotten the food so quickly. She decided to take over the family business instead of going to college, but if she didn’t love this place she could have gone to any school in the country.”

“Aaaaah, well…. If that was the case you should have said so,” Daniel said, his rage cooled by the implications of this statement. A fight would clearly have been a problem for Colton’s childhood friend. “I guess I let my emotions get the best of me. I just hate to let stupid people like that get away with being bullies.”

“Sometimes it isn’t worth it to fight over such little things, as I have told you repeatedly.” Mark sagely stated.

“You’re one to talk,” Daniel snorted. “You were just as ready to fight as I was.”

“I may have been angry, but I wasn’t going to start a brawl over a pizza shop table. Besides, what would we do if Colton’s good looks were marred in the process? I couldn’t live with myself.”

The three companions started laughing at the comment even though it wasn’t terribly funny. Coming off of the rush of adrenaline from the fight they were all excited to have walked away without anyone getting hurt. Realizing how stupid the whole situation was they quickly moved to less serious topics and began eating the pizza Gwen had just brought.