Alone in the Universe

"Always smile more than you cry, give more than you take and love more than you hate." ~Unknown

Alvin Seville

Creaking from the stairs behind me makes me sink low in the cushions of the couch. I could practically see his eyes shifting around the room trying to spot me. But he was moving about on a hunch, something that Simon does not particularly like despite him being a successful inventor. He preferred the comfort of fact. I on the other hand, was in deep trouble because of my own hunches… why did I have to say that? More important, why did I have to say it now? And to her?

"Alvin?" Simon whispers. He wanders around the dark apartment quietly as not to wake up the girl upstairs. We had been out of high school for only a year and most of us had split off and made homes of our own more quickly than what was standard by the humans. Dave had questioned us all settling down so quickly, but mom insisted that it was only natural being that we weren't humans at all. Theodore was the first to move out of the house, surprisingly. We all thought that Theo was a big homebody considering that he enjoyed the quiet life compared to Simon or I. He started renting an apartment in the city, and soon invited his longtime girlfriend, Eleanor, to move in with him. Her sisters were in complete hysterics when she actually accepted.

A couple months later, I left the nest. I couldn't stand being around the two most boring people in the world. All Dave did all day, saying that his music writing days were long behind him, was cook and he even knitted from time to time. Simon, on the other hand, read, studied, and filed out applications to any of the universities he had forgotten. I couldn't play music, video games, or even talk on the phone without bothering one of them. So I found a shabby apartment a little downtown from Theodore and moved in the few things I possessed. I hadn't been seeing Brittany at the time, but one night when the rain was coming down in sheets; there she stood at my doorstep. I couldn't take my eyes off her, just like always. Despite her make-up running, her hair frizzing out, and her wet clothes, I thought she was a knock out. Apparently, she couldn't stand her life at home any more either. Jeanette was a love sick novelist while Miss Miller was practically losing her marbles (well, more than usual). So right then and there, Brittany became a roommate of sorts. Though slowly, she became much, much more than that. Our relationship didn't form over dinner and a movie like normal people. Our love was a game of testing our limits with each other. One touch here, another there… she didn't yell, time for phase two. Though, it was a while before we accepted that what we had went far beyond friendship. She was my girl and that was good enough for now.

Amongst my own blooming love, my little brother Simon was starting to experience him own romance. Jeanette came out with a book the following spring after high school had ended. It was a love story of course. As good as Jeanette was with chemicals and test tubes, we all knew that her heart lay in the binding of good literature. Despite her lack of a higher education, Jeanette published a half way decent (by my standards) novel about an intellectual who never noticed the person standing right in front of him. To just see her would be too simple for the scholarly protagonist. Though, once he lost something that he held sacred, as most heroes do, the girl picked up the pieces and he began to finally notice her. He was sorry of course, but the twist at the end is what shocked me. The girl didn't accept, in fact, she left. Upon reading this ending, I stormed to the Miller residence in the middle of the night, manuscript in hand, and demanded a better, or at least, happier ending. Jeanette replied by saying that she had none. Well, the release of the book practically slapped my brother across the face. He worried for days that if he finally told Jeanette that he noticed her and always had that she would leave too. That she would tell him that if he had really cared he would have done something sooner. But that's just the thing, he cared so much that he couldn't bear to tell her and have every hope and dream dashed away just like that. To his luck, this did not happen. He confessed and she kissed him right in my apartment during a get together of Brittany's friends. I remember there was a lot of clapping, but it was all blocked out by the pride I was feeling towards Simon. As grown up as he thought he was, it was a joy to be able to watch him progress in the areas he had previously deemed unnecessary such as love.

Well, soon Simon was leaving Dave behind to live in a more glamorous apartment compared to either me or Theodore. Simon had saved more for his future then either of us. He immediately welcomed Jeanette into his home just days after Miss Miller went to a retirement home in Malibu. So here I am now, cowering in his huge apartment on his huge couch.

"You might as well just come out," Simon says. "I won't ask what's wrong. I just have to make sure it's you and not a real robber."

"Just go back upstairs," I tell him softly.

"Alvin," he peers over the couch to watch me. I stay still for a moment, feeling pathetic as I lay there on the couch in a ball. Simon shakes his head and comes around to join me. By this time, I'm sitting up straight with my legs stretched out and resting on his coffee table. "What happened between you two this time?"

"You said you wouldn't ask questions!" I argue, wanting to avoid my mistake at all costs. It wasn't that I couldn't talk to my brother about all of this, it was that I knew the moment I went home I would have to face her wrath.

"I lied," Simon shrugs, propping up his feet as well. Jeanette always got mad when we did this, but since it's just the two of us sitting her at two in the morning, what she doesn't know won't hurt us (emphasis on the us). Well, Simon anyways. Jeanette's never took a real swing at arguing with me before. She knows I have way too much experience.

"What a brother," I huff, crossing my arms like a child. "Here I come, thinking I can trust my closest sibling and this is what I get?"

"Pretty much," Simon says dryly. I roll my eyes during the silence that follows. "Alvin," he turns his head towards me. "You can really tell me anything, I won't judge… much. But you know what I mean."

"Yeah," I whisper. "Only a little laughter, a few sarcastic comments and a degrading comment. No biggy, I should be used to it by now."

"Okay, so go on," Simon says, ignoring my own sarcasm. As much as Simon was a pain in my behind, he was still my brother and I could trust him with anything. I knew that of all people, Simon would provide a clear answer to my problems.

"I, well," I start slowly, sitting up straighter and putting my feet back on the ground. I fold my hands and place it between my knees as I ponder what to say next. "I ask Brittany a question."

"You didn't," Simon warns. "Oh my God you did!"

"Not that question!" I protest.

"Marriage is not in your near future," Simon crosses his arms. I pout a little at the comment. Thank you Simon for pointing out the obvious. Of course I hoped that I would be spending the rest of my life with Brittany, but I knew just as well that it was way too soon. "Then what?" Simon leans back in his seat with his hands behind his back. "It's not like you asked her if she was on her period, or better yet, that she was pregnant."

"Well," I freeze. Crap.

"Alvin," Simon turns to me slowly. "You're a dead man."

"Don't I know it," I whisper. We sit there in silence, just waiting for something to happen. "She's been so moody lately," I comment after a while.

"Well, she is Brittany."

"More than usual I mean," I say. "I mean, I caught her in the kitchen dipping pickles in peanut butter and eating it," I shiver in disgust. "Can you imagine?"

"So?" he asks. "That was supposed to be your que to just get up and walk away." I nod at Simon's comment. It's true; I should have just left instead of trying to be a smart ass. Before I can say anything though, Simon's phone rings, filling the whole apartment with shrill noise. Simon turns his head sharply to the left and lunges towards the phone. But before he can reach the phone, the noise stops.

We sit there in complete silence for three whole minutes, holding our breaths all the while. Creaking from upstairs makes Simon cringe. Jeanette lumbers down the stairs with her eyes half open and her glasses hanging loosely on her nose.

"Go home Alvin," she grumbles.

"I can't go home!" I protest, good and ready to get down on my knees and beg Jeanette to let me stay. "Please! She's going to kill me!"

"Brittany's in hysterics because she doesn't know where you are," Jeanette says simply, rubbing her eyes. "She wants you home. She isn't going to hurt you."

"Much," Simon adds.

"No one asked you!" I turn to him. Jeanette comes all the way down the stairs and grabs my arm, forcing me out of her front door. "Simon!" I try to get his attention, but he only shrugs before the door is closed. "Well fine!" I kick the door and stomp off into the rain.

~Hey guyss :)