Chapter 6

The sun began to set over the horizon, the day ready to end in matter of hours. The gracious Alvin sat upon his bed and gazed out to watch the sun, disregarding his homework that sat in front of him. The pain from earlier that day was out of Alvin's mind as he became hypnotized by the smear of orange and yellow occupying the sky.

There came a knock on the door, bringing him out of his temporary trance.

"Who is it?" he called.

"The one that wears the glasses," he jokingly called as he opened the door to make his way through.

Alvin rolled his eyes with a chuckle and glanced up to meet stares with his taller younger brother. "What's up?"

Simon took a seat upon Alvin's bed as Alvin turned away from his desk. "Bored," he replied bluntly.

Alvin smirked. "You're never bored! Why so bored?"

Simon handed off a shrug and sighed heavily. "Eh, Jeanette hasn't called me yet. Kinda bummed, you can suggest."

With each word, Alvin's smile grew wider than the last. "Uh-oh, someone's starting to fall in love his girlfriend!" Alvin teased as he nudged Simon in his ribs.

"It's the perks of having a girlfriend, Alvin," Simon replied with a dream-like sigh. "You miss her when she's gone, and yes… you do start to see that you like her more than ever! You should experience it sometime… it's a good feeling…"

Alvin wrinkled his nose and huffed. "I would try to experience it. But she hates my guts right about now…"

"Brittany?"

"How'd ya know?"

Simon readjusted his glasses to the bridge of his nose, preparing for his explanation. "It's a brother thing, Alvin. I just know. Besides, why would she hate you?"

Alvin scoffed aloud and threw himself next to Simon upon his bed. "When you guys left the hospital last night, she blew up at me! She said that guys don't understand girls and was telling me how stupid I was!"

"And… your rebuttal?"

"I blew up at her too!" he exclaimed. "I told her what we guys have to put up with when it comes to girls! I mean, make-up, and 'oh, I'm so fat in this', and other crap!" He slowly brought his temper down to a minimum and gazed at his younger brother. "I have to give you props, bro; the way you put up with Jeanette is beyond me! I like Britt, I really do, but I can't put up with her!"

"It's not me, necessarily putting up with Jeanette; it's I and Jeanette having an understanding between one another. That's what makes our relationship so great! We grew to understand each other!"

Alvin jumped from his bed and sat at his desk once again. "Well, I don't have the patience… Girls will be girls. Why? I don't know, but it's stupid!"

"Alvin, you shouldn't be so narrow-minded," Simon suggested with raised eyebrows. "Maybe she has reasons for the make-up or the clothes they wear, or the things they say!"

"Well, she didn't give me any!" Alvin retorted. "And… something… weird… strange happened at the hospital yesterday."

"And what was that?"

Alvin frowned as he bit his lip and shook up the conversation. He knew better than to tell his scientifically thoughtful brother about a pink tornado that took him on a crazy ride just last night. He would never believe Alvin then. "Never mind; it was just a heavy windstorm as all. But don't expect me to ever understand a girl, Simon, because there's nothing to understand. They just do that crap to annoy us guys!"

Simon shrugged, figuring he had given his all. "Well, you'll change your mind soon enough Alvin…" and with that, he exited the room, leaving Alvin to ponder Simon's words.

~7~7~7~7~

"And that jerk Alvin had enough nerve to tell me to go and get an application from the circus!"

Though her sister was raging about the argument she and Alvin shared that touched her deeply, Jeanette fought back to hide her giggles. "Brittany, that's sounds awful!"

"I know!" she shouted as she wiped away a discarded tear. "And Alvin knows I'm really sensitive when it comes to my appearance."

"Listen Brittany," the brunette began as she rested a hand upon her older sister's shoulder, "by what you're telling me, the confrontation was pretty bad, and I completely understand that. But…" she paused, biting her lip in hesitation, wondering if it would be a smart idea to disclose her two-sense to Brittany. "… have you ever considered why Alvin does the things he does?"

"Yeah, because he's thoughtless, stupid, and careless!" she spat as she began to pace the room.

"Brittany, that's not what I have in mind."

"Well, tell me Miss Brainy-Pants!"

Jeanette rolled her eyes and sighed. "I'm saying, what you're seeing is a stupid teenage boy. But have you ever considered that deep down, he thinks about you constantly, that he does get nervous when he sees you, or that he didn't mean any of those things he said, or that when he gives you a compliment, he genuinely means it?"

"Oh trust me, Jean. Every compliment he has given me, he had never meant!"

"But you don't know that!"

"Jeanette, listen to me!" Brittany spat, startling Jeanette beyond belief. "Alvin is arrogant, self-centered, and careless. He never considers my feelings until I start crying, he constantly mocks my make-up… I do things to myself in hopes that he would notice, but in the end, I'm invisible to him, and-" she paused suddenly, the tears rushing down her face. "I'm still head-over-heels for that boy…"

Awkwardly, it touched Jeanette's heart. Not in the sense that Brittany was crying, but in the sense that she was crying… over Alvin, a boy who she can name dozens of negatives about him, but through it all, come out and say she had the deepest feelings for him. "Oh Brittany…"

"Just for a while, Jeanette, I want Alvin to see why I do the things I do! I want him to see why I wear piles of make-up, why I rant and rave when he's around, why I wear his favorite color! I just want him to know how it's like… nothing more…"