Chris Halliwell walked into his bedroom quickly but as soon as he took a look inside he had to turn around.
"Dude, could you put it away?" Chris asked his older brother, Wyatt
Wyatt stood up and pulled up his pants. "Well, maybe you should learn to knock."
"Hey, it's not my fault you can't learn to get off in the bathroom or something."
"Go fuck yourself." Wyatt responded and threw pillow he was leaning on at his 15-year- old brother.
"No, I won't stoop to your level." Chris said with a snicker. He sat down at his desk and pulled out a folded piece of paper and began to read the handwritten contents.
Wyatt stood up from his bed and walked slowly towards the door. But as he neared Chris's desk he rapidly turned around and snatched the paper from him.
"Oh, what's this…a letter from your girlfriend?" Wyatt teased his brother.
"Give it back man!" Chris began to uselessly grab for the paper.
"Dear Chris," Wyatt began to say in a girly voice. He wasn't even looking at the paper, just pretending. "I loooooove you. I want to meet you tonight and make sweet sweet love to you!"
Wyatt laughed. He had had his fun and now he wanted to read the paper that his brother was trying so hard to take from him.
"Dude, get off of me, you're not getting it back until I'm done with it."
"No, Wyatt! Give it back, I'm not kidding!" Chris screamed
Wyatt had gotten sick of this, but he was now extremely curious of what the note read. With a flick of the hand he orbed Chris under the bed. He had bought himself a bit of time.
The letter began:
Dear Chris,
Your note was really flattering and I loved it. It was so nice and you're a great person. But…I have to admit that you're not my type. That's why I can't go out with you. I hope that we can still be friends because it's not you, it's me.
Wyatt began feeling very sympathetic for his brother. As Chris began to climb out from under the bed Wyatt read the signature on the letter:
Sincerely,
Mark Walberg
Wyatt was speechless. His mouth agape, he looked up from the letter to his brother, standing in front of him with tears in his eyes.
"Is this…some sort of joke?" Wyatt finally spit out
All Chris could do was stand there. Feeling ashamed but at the same time relieved. He was so happy to have this burden off of his chest. But he knew an explosion was coming.
"Chris? Answer me."
"No." Was all he could say, but it felt like a Shakespearean monologue to Chris
Wyatt moved closer to Chris. His little brother took a step back. They did this same movement again and once more. Chris didn't want to get close to Wyatt right now. He was studying the floor because he couldn't face his big brother.
Wyatt reached out and touched Chris and his brother winced. "Chris, I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm not mad at you or anything."
"Yeah right." Chris mumbled
"What do you mean?"
"You're basically a homophobe! You're always saying, fag this, queer that. You make fun of every gay person you see!" Chris exploded, he didn't foresee himself exploding…in his nightmares it was always Wyatt doing the screaming.
"Chris…I wont make fun of you. You're my brother. And just because you're confused right now…"
"I'm not confused! I'm not bisexual, I'm gay!"
"How long have you been gay?" Wyatt inquired. He felt betrayed in a way
"I think I've always known."
"Who else knows? Why couldn't you tell me?" The betrayal was burning him inside, but in a way he couldn't blame Chris, he had always been a bit of a homophobe.
"You wouldn't understand, just like you don't understand right now!"
"But you're wrong. I do understand. You're my little brother and even if you were in jail I would care for you."
"When did this sudden caring kick start?"
"It's always been here." Wyatt said, patting his chest. "You're not a felon, you're gay. And unless you're into your own brother, I'm okay with it."
Chris laughed, "No worried, as you can tell I like Mark."
"Yeah, I noticed." Wyatt handed Chris the note. "This guy reject you?"
"I guess so…"
"Well…you may be gay, but you're also a witch…which means we can do things to people who reject us." Wyatt smiled. So did Chris…his brother had a trick up his sleeve and for once he wasn't scared because of it.
Mark lay on his bed, checking his text messages. One from Tracy, one from Martha and one from Chris.
"Oh no…" Mark said when he saw Chris's name. Chris was a nice guy, but Mark already had a boyfriend. He selected Chris's name. The text message read: BOOM!
Just as he read the word the lamp on Mark's nightstand fell and with a BOOM and smash it broke. The sounds made him jump and then his phone jingled. Another text message from Chris: It's not you, it's me!
Suddenly all of the things in Mark's room levitated, including his bed. Mark could only make strange squeaking noises from his open mouth. With a BANG, Mark's windows opened. A ball of whitelights flew in through the open window and materialized into Wyatt.
"You wanna get down?"
Mark could only nod his head. What was going on?
"Pinch yourself and cluck like a chicken and you can wake up from this dream!"
Mark did as he was told, looking ridiculous and unknowingly being recorded by the webcam atop his computer, transmitting the video to the entire school…conveniently leaving out Wyatt of the frame.
"He he he…what a retard. See ya!" Wyatt became the white lights again and flew out and everything in the room became normal again.
Wyatt and Chris never spoke of this again, but the silence was comforting to both of them, for it was a silent understanding of their brotherly love.