Sunday – April 6, 2014

It was rather annoying how some jumbled up words displayed on my phone. Here I was with my lil' bro snuggled up to my side and who appeared to be dreaming a happy dream and all I could stare at was some guy's attempt at cracking me up. Surely, he didn't think I'd love to play his little game.

*********69: u up for a game?

That was the first text he sent me. I'd rather not share each digit of his mobile number, but I'll spoil the last two digits. Oh yes. It couldn't be more vulgar than 69. I didn't bother to send him a reply at first, but he kept pestering me and I eventually sent him this text:

Me: fuck off whoever u r.
*********69: one game bro. figure it out, you win everything

At that instant, only one name came to my mind and it was pretty much highlighted in blinking neon lights like the ones you see on all signs pointing to a club of some sort. Tom. It was only him who I knew addressed me (and maybe everyone else) simply as `bro'.

*********69: a riddle. u don't hav to answer right away. just figure it out

I didn't get to send a reply when his next message appeared in my inbox. I thought it was pretty silly, and I really don't know what he meant by saying:

*********69: It isn't about being funny, but you think it's comical
Words can be confusing and it all seems lyrical
You cry, you laugh, yet it's really not hysterical
But dare to know and it can be magical.

You probably know what I sent him next. But just in case you didn't think of it yet, I simply told him to:

Me: FUCK OFF

And that's how Alex stirred beside me because I almost wanted to stab my phone with my fingers stressing every letter of the last message I bothered to send. I heard my lil' bro mumble and moan a little until he finally yawned and stretched and opened his beautiful eyes to greet anyone who happened to look into them a very, very, very `good morning'.

I must have been the luckiest person on Earth to see such a miracle in Alex's eyes. It was the perfect combination of a dark outline circling his iris before passively sinking into a mixture of cream and hazelnut spheres at the centre.

"Hi," he whispered.

"Fuck," I whispered back. "You're beautiful."

"Thanks." He giggled. "...though I'd rather not get fucked just `coz of that."

"Why not? I mean, anyone could fall for you at first sight."

"I want something deeper, okay? Something like...," he paused and that's when I felt his hand grab my still unattended stiffy. "...like how hard your dick is in the morning. Y'know, like how easily I can grab it and see that you love me, big bro."

"That doesn't make sense," I told him. "That's just me being horny."

"Horny or not, this part of you never lies. I can tell whenever you want to just...jerk off or when you're able to hold it and just look at me like what you're doing now."

"I can't help it. You're eyes are smiling at me."

I smiled at him and he only cuddled closer to me.

"Yep! And I love you, too."

It was a very short morning after that. We had some breakfast, toured the island some more and before we knew it, we were scheduled to go back home after lunch the following day. My folks were supposed to be back home by the time we arrive at the airport and I could only imagine my mom's delight at the lack of news regarding any `abnormal' things that we might have done during our short vacation. Alex's parents took care of narrating what happened during the last week and they were kind enough to leave the `abnormal' things out of their reports to my mom who surprisingly got a tan now.

After that, I wasn't allowed to spend the rest of my evenings having a sleepover with Alex. It seemed that my mom still took severe precautions to make sure that her son would keep the bloodline intact and be able to give her a grandchild one day. I felt sorry for her. Not the kind of `sorry' where my conscience nagged me, but the kind of `sorry' where it was mostly just pity for how wrong she would be.

~*~*~*~

Tuesday – April 15, 2014

Now what isn't funny, but comical? And if it wasn't funny in the first place, how the fuck can it be hysterical at all?

Tom (I'm sure it was him) didn't send me a text after I told him to FUCK OFF more than a week ago. I didn't delete his message and I found myself staring at it for far longer than I had ever wanted to. His words wasn't making any sense.

"Let's see," Alex began as he sat down beside me and I quickly turned my phone away. "Classes start next week and it'll be for two whole weeks, excluding Sundays."

"Do you even have money to enrol for that?" I asked and took the pamphlet from him.

"I can ask for some cash advance from my dad and I really think we should start up a business."

"What kind of business?"

"Selling halo-halo," he proudly declared.

In case you're wondering, halo-halo is a local cuisine or concoction of sweetened milk, crushed ice, corn flakes, sliced bananas, sometimes with jelly, little round pearls and other colourful things that can be put in a usually tall glass and often with a scoop of ice cream on top. Its demand reached its peak during the summer, but it's a famous delicacy all-year-round where we live. Basically, halo-halo can be literally translated into mix-mix and I'm sure you know now why it's called as such.

"Halo-halo?" I asked. "Since when did you learn to mix all those things together and not get poisoned by it?"

"I can bake, y'know. It'll be as simple as that and I really think I'm a culinary expert."

I laughed at him and he didn't seem annoyed at all. Instead, he laughed with me and we were soon making a list of ingredients we needed and began counting what little money we saved and begged my dad on the phone to invest in our business. He thought it was cool and he was instantly our largest stockholder, he told us.

Oh yeah, about that pamphlet I was holding earlier. It was an advertisement for a dance school that Alex wanted to be a part of. He said that it was unfair that I could sway my hips gracefully and he couldn't even do a simple shuffle with his feet. It would be a two-week commitment and I'd gladly be there for him every single day. I'm sure my mom won't have a problem as long as we (and I quote her for this), "Avoid being together by ourselves."

So you must be wondering who was with us right now so that Alex and I can't spend our time alone together. We were in my house and my mom was in the kitchen preparing lunch, but I swear her eyes never left us for even just a fraction of a second.

There was one peculiar thing, though. Something was different about her. It wasn't her tan. It was something else, but I couldn't tell what it was exactly.

"Did you finish that book you bought?" I asked.

"Yep."

"How was it?"

"Perfect."

He simply left it at that and quickly changed the subject. I could tell from the way his eyes looked at me. It was like he was reading my thoughts. Not my conscious thoughts, but the ones stored in my subconscious.

"You're mom's staring at us," he whispered.

"I know. Sorry."

"Can't we find some other place in here where we can't feel her eyes on us?"

"My room upstairs," I answered. "But that would be the last place she'd let us be alone."

"How `bout at my house? My mom's there and your mom could just ask her what we're doing."

"Sounds good. I'll go tell her."

My mom isn't really that bad. She also had a very good side. That side of her showed every time her favourite noontime soap opera aired on the TV. So when I asked her if we could go to Alex's house and she could check my tracker to make sure that we're there and that Alex's mom would inform her what we were doing while keeping an eye on us, she shrugged her shoulders and shooed me away without even looking at me. I guess I should learn how to get her to show her good side more often aside from depending on her soap opera.

We rode my bike to Alex's house with me on the handle bars and him sitting on the metal bar in front of me with his legs hanging over one side. If we weren't riding my bike, it could have looked like he was sitting in between my lap.

"We should get you a bike," I half-yelled. "You're getting heavier already."

"But I like riding one with you," he admitted. "I feel safer right here."

"You're just making that up so you'd have an excuse to always hitch a ride with me."

"Yep!"

It was a cloudless day outside. There was just a light blue ocean up above with a glowing yellow jellyfish at the centre. This jellyfish was mad at all those below and infinitely smaller than it. It stung my eyes and it burned my skin. I was surprised that the trees weren't blazing yet.

Before long, we were up in Alex's room and the air couldn't get hotter than it was right now. We were sweating (mostly me) and too tired to even do anything. We just sat by his bed with Alex's head on my lap as beads of sweat trickled from my forehead down to his chest. We were only in our underwear, but it still felt like being trapped inside a furnace built in the middle of the Sahara.

"We should start that business real soon," he told me. "I'd like to have some ice cream right now and I'm sure everyone else would pay a lot to cool off."

"We still need a name for it," I said. "My dad wants us to have a contract so he'd be sure that his investment is properly recorded and stuff."

He nodded and began closing his eyes with his mouth wide open like a dog taking in some shallow breaths.

"I hate how hot it is!" he finally yelled.

"It's summer, y'know. Get used to it."

"Whatever, big bro. I was thinking, how can anyone tell what the weather will be like in, say, four days...or a year?"

"You mean, a weather forecast?" I asked and he nodded again. "Don't they have instruments for that? There's one called the barometer and weather balloons are made for weather forecasting, too."

"Besides that. Can't they just look up at the sky and say, `it's gonna rain today' or `there's a storm coming,'" he argued.

"Maybe our ancestors did something like that. Look up and tell what the weather will be like. Why are you asking this kind of stuff anyway?"

"I dunno. I guess...I'm just trying to predict the weather, too," he mumbled. "...but without any instruments."

"We could do that."

He looked up at me excitedly and I offered him a genuine smile. He shifted and lay on his side with his face directly in front of my bulging underwear. He looked more like a dog right now as he began to sniff my sweaty white briefs.

"I like it," he whispered. "...smells musky."

"Cute underwear," I commented and he blushed instantly as he remembered what his undies looked like. "...a bit childish, yes. But I like the lightning right above your dick."

He giggled and asked, "...want to make it rain?"

"Huh?"

"Right here."

I'm sure you know where his left hand settled. It wasn't on top of my undies. It wasn't on my thighs. Really.

It was on top of his own clothed dick, just right above the yellow lightning peeking down from a grey cloud. I couldn't see any drop of rain printed on the fabric so I knew right then what he meant with `making it rain'.

"Your mom won't know," he assured me. "...no one but us will know."

I nodded and moved my hand slowly toward his bulging briefs as he removed his own hand from there. I traced the outline of the cloud down to the tip of the yellow lightning. The print on the fabric must've been in 3d because it felt like it had a very hard and curved dimension. I could only care less about the yellow (as if I could not stress enough how yellow it was) lightning and much less about the barely visible yellow stain millimetres away from its tip.

"Make it rain, big bro."

That was all it took for me to pull his undies down and throw them aside and be earnestly greeted by what hid behind the grey cloud. Of course it was the thunder god riding above his round chariot and standing proudly with its dark round armour covering a part of him.

"I bet it smells musky," I told him and he gladly pushed himself up before lying back down again with his feet resting on the edge of the bed and me in between his legs and my face directly in front of his cute bum and the thunder god.

"Go on. Smell it," he said.

I moved closer and the smell of rain and thunder quickly overtook my senses. It was amazing. It was beyond godly. It was just the scent of a boy that can hardly ever be forgotten. It was Alex's dick right against my lips and beneath my nose.

"Rain...," he whispered once more and I finally pulled his butt closer as his back arched sexily as ever. Somewhere in between all that, I put a large pillow under him.

His hair fell flat on the floor as he began to moan and gasp at the same time. The smell of rain and thunder grew wilder and I began to lick down below and was met with a fiery taste, so much like lightning itself. It electrocuted me as much as it sent shivers up Alex's back. I saw him bite his lip so I felt sure that the shivers kept on coming.

"I...I can see it," he moaned.

"Mmhmm?" I moaned as I licked back up to the tip of his dick.

"...the weather," he exhaled.

"What do you see?" I asked as I paused to look at his smiling eyes.

"Sure chance of rain."

I smiled at him and went back to sucking his dick. His thrusts began to get faster and if it wasn't for the pillow under him, he would've collapsed on the floor by now. My hands were squeezed between the pillow and his adorable bubble butt which was as soft as a pack of marshmallows.

After some time, I took my hands away from his ass and put them right between his legs, right up against his crack so that I could spread it apart some more. I think I heard him giggle in between the moans and gasps he continued to let out.

"A storm!" he suddenly yelled and I swallowed deeper before finally settling on his glans and stroking him while my other hand pushed inside his virgin ass. It was one way to get him ready to be penetrated someday.

From the corner of my eyes, I could see his discarded undies with the grey cloud and yellow lightning. I must've been seeing things because I was sure that I also saw some droplets of rain starting to come down.

Then it hit me. Or it hit the back of my throat. It wasn't just a usual storm. It was a freakin typhoon that sent waves after waves after waves of salty liquid into my mouth. It may have been the taste of lightning and rain and the ocean combined into one. Let me tell you, it was a taste I could never ever forget.

"Fuuuuck!" Alex breathed out. "...shit."

His dick popped out of my mouth before I wiped the little drop of cum from my lips. He smiled at me and, you probably should get used to this by now, he had that same look on his face after I sucked him breathless. His eyes glowed some more and his lips curved up sweetly on both corners.

"Awesome rain," I told him as he took his feet off his bed and left it dangling over the pillow.

I pulled him up and let him sit on my lap. I was still sweating like hell as his hand brushed the few strands of hair that fell over my forehead. Then he leaned in and kissed me. I knew that the typhoon had passed, but even his mouth tasted like lightning and rain and the ocean combined into one.

"Ready for another storm?" he asked and I nodded before he reached down to the hem of my undies and started pulling them up my thighs with the fabric touching his cute ass and finally going down my legs.

"I could use a lot of rain right now," I said, he giggled and started on my lips once more before trailing down toward my own thunder god.

~*~*~*~

Friday – April 18, 2014

See, Alex knew how to tell the weather. I didn't notice it before, but when I checked my phone to read his diary, I found out what he'd written right next to April 15.

Make it rain.

If by rain he meant both of us cumming one after the other, then he just fulfilled another entry on his diary. I won't call it a calendar because it didn't even make sense to call it that. Diary seemed perfect enough.

As I scanned my phone, I stumbled on my inbox once more and on Tom's text.

You cry, you laugh, yet it's really not hysterical
But dare to know and it can be magical.

I wasn't crying. I wasn't even laughing. Nothing was hysterical about any of the message he sent me. Only the last line made a little sense.

If he was talking about Alex's diary, then I guess he meant that I should know what December 28 would bring and see that it will be (I hope) magical. However, the only magical thing going on was the entries in Alex's diary coming true every single time.

Something tickled my bare foot and I was quickly met with huge brown eyes staring at me. I should probably introduce you to Gumball. He's our new puppy and we got him yesterday from a friend of a friend who knew another friend who had a dog that gave birth to lots and lots of puppies some time ago.

Gumball was as soft and furry as any dog can be. His wagging tail was like a paintbrush dipped in black paint and left to dry just like that. His cream coloured fur smelled like strawberries and his cute ears drooped down both sides of his tiny head. It wasn't only his tail that got dipped in black paint. In fact, I think the little rascal was just too curious to even put his snout into a can full of really black paint. He looked cute that way, I guess.

"Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?"

Yes. I made my voice sound like I was talking to a baby, in case you were wondering. Gumball barked and stumbled on its tiny legs and onto my lap. His tail never stopped wagging and his eyes just looked so freakin adorable.

"Don't worry," I told him. "Daddy will be here soon."

As much as I didn't want to treat Gumball like a baby, Alex convinced me that we were the puppies adopted parents and we should act like it. He started calling himself Daddy and he referred to me as Bigger Daddy.

I hated that nickname.

"Michael!" mom called from below. I was up in my tree house and enjoying the cool breeze, but she just had to ruin that for me.

When I went down, she surprised me a little because she was smiling so sweetly and even wore her best perfume. She smelled like dandelions drifting in the summer wind. In case you don't know how that smelled, take a while to imagine a fragrance such as that where you lay on the cool blades of grass under the friendly glowing yellow jellyfish floating in the ocean up above, the wind passing by you and dandelions dancing all around.

Her fragrance lifted my spirit.

"You remember Pauline, don't you?" she asked.

"Sanchez? Pauline Sanchez?"

She nodded.

"Why?"

"She's staying over this weekend. Her mom's going to give birth to her second child and she'll be staying at the hospital together with her husband. Pauline doesn't need a sitter, but I arranged for her to stay here in the meantime."

"You mean, she's coming over tomorrow?"

"Yes," she simply answered and smiled. "Go clean the guest room and give those rats of yours some new bedding. I'm sure she'd like to stay up in your tree house."

"Hamsters," I corrected. "They're hamsters, not rats. And they have names. Oreo and Mocha."

"They smell like rats. And that dog..." She narrowed her eyebrows, squinted her eyes at Gumball who was in my arms and looked disgusted. "Your father won this argument, but that dog will be the last thing he'd convince me to let you keep."

"His name's Gumball," I argued. "He's not just `that dog'."

"Go clean the guest room and...," she paused and she looked sweetly at me again. "You can have Alex stay over for the weekend, too."

That surely lifted my spirit far more that her perfume ever did.

Ever since we got home, I didn't get to have any more sleepovers with Alex up in my tree house. My mom banned that for life. There was no way that she'd ever risk both of us doing abnormal things ever again.

Alex and I didn't take it so well, but we had no other choice than to do her bidding. Even my dad failed at distracting her. I guess she became more convincing than ever before and I thought Gumball was the last exception, but now she was letting Alex stay over for the weekend! Coming from her, it was almost too good to be true.

Cleaning the guest room after that wasn't such a big deal. Cleaning the hamster cage became one of the best chores ever. And calling Alex to let him know about my mom's offer easily turned out to be one of the greatest conversations I had over the phone.

It felt that way for the rest of the afternoon and my mom even agreed to have Alex come over that night. Later, up in my tree house, we'll make sure to scratch another thing off the list in our jar.

When Alex finally arrived, it was Gumball who got to him first and received a warm hug. I could feel my mom's eyes watching us intently so we chose not to hug and kiss and all that. We simply bumped fists and grinned widely.

"Pauline Sanchez?" Alex asked after we had dinner and settled for the night up in my tree house. "Who's she?"

"The daughter of my dance instructor from ages ago," I answered. "...and she had a crush on me."

"You sure?" He giggled. "Or are you just flattering yourself?"

"She sent me love letters. What else could that mean?"

"Maybe it wasn't her?"

"She handed the letters to me."

Alex laughed so hard and Gumball squirmed on his lap. Oreo and Mocha seemed to be having fits of laughter as well from what their squeaking sounded like.

"You liked her?" Alex asked after he stopped laughing.

"No! Never!"

"Why? Did you dislike girls by that time already?"

"I didn't think of it yet, but...," I paused and tried to recall some distant memories from when I was eight years old. "...I just didn't like her."

"Why didn't she become your dance partner or did she?"

"She wasn't. Her partner was another boy who was a lot bigger than me. She was bigger than me, too!"

"Well," Alex mumbled and scooped Gumball into his arms. "We could try being friends with her and who knows...maybe she doesn't like you anymore."

"I still get the same letters," I admitted.

"Oh."

"Yeah."

And that's when Alex and I realized that maybe my mom had this planned all along. With Pauline staying over for the weekend, there would be someone to keep an eye over Alex and me. And since it was Pauline, who still has a crush on me, she'd make sure to stand in between my lil' bro and me and there'd be nothing we can do about that. Perhaps my mom even fixed for her to be my girlfriend.

I sighed and so did Alex. I think even Gumball, Oreo and Mocha felt sad at the thought. No tail was wagging and the hamster wheel stopped moving.

"Can we not pick something out from the list tonight?" Alex asked and I looked questioningly at him. "...we're both not in the mood for that big bro."

I nodded and took Gumball from Alex's arms and petted him. He started licking my hand and it instantly put me in a good mood.

"I bought all the ingredients earlier," Alex told me. "We can start up our business tomorrow. We'll put a stand right in front of your house and sell it from there."

"We still don't have a name for our business," I said.

"How `bout OMG Halo-halo?"

"OMG? Oh my gawd?"

"Nope!" Alex giggled. "Oreo, Mocha and Gumball."

I couldn't have thought of a better name. Oreo, Mocha and Gumball couldn't have thought of a better name. The hamster wheel started turning again and Gumball's tail was like painting the air black with how fast it moved back and forth.

"So...you have any idea what we should do tonight without my mom bothering us?"

"I swear, Mikey. I can still feel her eyes on us. It's like she has binoculars and watching us right now."

"She has binoculars," I said and Alex's looked at me doubtfully. "She bought one yesterday. I even think she works for the CIA now."

So before we went to sleep that night, we made sure to drop a blanket over the large window on one side of my tree house. Unless my mom installed a camera up in here, I'm sure she wouldn't see us completely. We locked the trap door that led to the ladder below and made sure to keep quiet because if my mom had a microphone somewhere in here so that she could listen in on us, at least she won't hear a thing.

Besides, we didn't need to say anything when Alex and I could just look at each other and send telepathic messages with our eyes. We held back our giggles as we put a blanket over our heads with a flashlight in Alex's hand. Gumball was cuddled in his little basket by the corner and his little puppy snores made us laugh a little.

"Goodnight big bro," Alex whispered, cuddled up to me and turned off the flashlight.

"I love you," I whispered and he quickly kissed me on the lips before resting his head on my chest once more. I brushed his soft hair and sighed.

But dare to know and it can be magical.

As far as I'm concerned, nothing could be more magical than having Alex in my arms and breathing in the sweet scent of his hair. What else was there for me to know other than the fact that I was in love with a boy and he felt the same way toward me?

~*~*~*~

Saturday – April 19, 2014

Pauline Sanchez came over after breakfast and she had the most sparkling eyes I've seen in girls. Every time we locked gazes, she would blush and twirl the ends of her wavy dark hair in her fingers. She wore a miniskirt and a very pink blouse or whatever they call it. When she walked up to me, she smiled sweetly and took my hand before handing me yet another letter. It was sealed with a kiss, she told me. I wouldn't dare to unseal it anytime soon.

Oh, and I'm taller than her now.

"Hey," Alex greeted her and it was only then that she noticed him.

"Oh, hi." She smiled. "I'm Pau."

"Alex."

They didn't shake hands or bump fists or wave to each other. How could Pauline do any of those when her hands locked with mine? She moved even closer to me and I tried real hard not to lean away. She smelled like daisies and I didn't like it. In fact, it only made me miss the smell of lightning and rain and the ocean combined into one. I looked toward Alex and he just shrugged his shoulder and smiled a little.

"You didn't send me any letter, Mico," she told me. She was the only one who called me Mico.

"I forgot. Besides, we could just chat online," I told her.

"It's different when you send letters. You can seal it with a kiss."

I would've puked right there. I didn't want to seal anything I sent her with any of my prized kisses. Only Alex can seal and unseal a kiss from me.

"You still dance, right?" she asked and I nodded.

"A little."

"Mom's been teaching me a new routine and I want you to be my partner, but...," she paused and looked to be thinking deeply. "It's embarrassing. You'd think I'm a slut when I dance like that so you can't see me doing that routine, okay?"

I nodded again and felt relieved that I didn't have to be her partner.

We both went inside after that and showed her to the guest room. She didn't want our help unpacking her things so we just waited for her in our living room while playing with Gumball. When she sat beside me, she took Gumball from my arms and started petting him and Gumball seemed happy enough from getting lots of attention.

Mom passed by us and told us that she'd be out for a while to get some groceries. I think she exchanged looks with Pauline and that only the two of them understood whatever message they sent telepathically. She sent me a look and I instantly knew what she meant by that.

"So, Mico," Pauline started as she set Gumball on the floor. "...wanna dance?"

After a minute or so, Pauline was a few feet away and in front of me while Alex sat on the couch with Gumball in his arms. I stood still and waited for the music to start. Pauline was smiling sweetly again and her hands were on her hips with her right foot pointing to one side.

When the music went on, she swayed her hips and her miniskirt went from one side to the other. I began to move and reach my arm toward her, but she spun around and was kind of seducing me with her butt.

Saw you from the distance
Saw you from the stage
Something `bout the look in your eyes
Something `bout your beautiful face

We were ballroom dancing to Touch My Hand, but as she reached out back to me at the start of the chorus, it wasn't her hand that I longed to hold. I could see Alex smiling from the corners of my eyes.

We spun around and around with my hands on her swaying hips and her eyes staring up at me. She looked beautiful. She arched her back and pulled me down with her before I pulled her back up and started spinning her while shuffling my own feet. She was very graceful.

Can't let the music stop
Until I touch your hand
`Coz if I do it'll all be over
I'll never get the chance again

It surprised me that I really didn't want the music to stop. It felt so good to be dancing again. I even smiled back at Pauline as I pulled her close and she pressed her hands on my chest. Her long and wavy black hair even appeared to be dancing as she pushed herself away from me and started seducing me again.

I see the sparkle of a million flashlights
A wonder wall of stars
But the one shining out so bright
Is the one right where you are

She moved toward me again and I reached for her. But my eyes weren't looking at her anymore. I didn't think she noticed. Her back was toward Alex while I was facing my lil' bro. Despite the sparkle in Pauline's eyes that had held me captive earlier, I was easily drawn to look at Alex and he seemed to be smiling sadly. No matter how graceful, sweet and light Pauline felt in my arms, Alex was the only one I wanted to reach out to. He was the brightest star in the room.

When the music slowly died down, Pauline did one more turn before coming back into my arms. She lifted one leg up and I held it against my hips before leaning down to have her long hair almost touch the floor. She smiled up at me again and I also smiled at her. She didn't have me mesmerized by her eyes, but we still held onto each other longer than I would've wanted.

When we heard Alex clap his hands, we finished our tableau before I could accidentally lean a bit more and do a kissing scene with her. I knew she wanted to pull me closer, but she just didn't have me where she would've wanted.

"That was awesome!" Alex cheered and Gumball agreed.

"You need more practice," Pauline told me. "...but that was great."

"You've gotten a whole lot better," I told her.

"I can't wait to dance like that!" Alex exclaimed and I saw Pauline roll her eyes at my lil' bro.

"Why is he here anyway?" Pauline asked as she pointed to Alex. "He isn't a classmate of yours, is he?"

I glanced quickly toward my lil' bro and he looked curiously at me. Pauline waited impatiently for an answer and turned my attention back toward her as she waved her hand in front of my face. That sweet look she had on earlier wasn't even there anymore. She just looked annoyed.

"Yep!" Alex spoke. "We're..."

"Boyfriends," I interrupted.

Anyone who was in the same room with us could've heard the faint sound of a needle dropping to the carpeted floor. Alex was looking nervously at me and Pauline looked hurt and almost on the verge of crying and cursing and...

It was then that Tom's message filled my mind once again. I felt like laughing so hard, but I knew that this wasn't meant to be funny. Pauline was almost in tears and it all seemed hysterical. I still can't see the magical part, but I guess it was Alex who gave the eerie feeling of a magic trick getting revealed before our eyes.

"Poof," Alex sounded.

Yeah. It all went `poof' just like that.