Saturday, September 13

Daphne picked up the ringing phone. "Yeah?" she asked casually.

"Is this Daphne?"

"Uh-huh."

"Hey, lovely. Haven't talked to you in awhile. It's me, Tom."

Daphne smiled. "Tommy boy? What's up?"

"Not a whole lot. I'm calling for Joel… is he there?"

"You didn't call for me?" Daphne's tone was whiny.

"No, sorry. But I can talk to you if you want."

"How's Tania?"

"Oh… we broke up a couple weeks ago."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that."

"Yep. What about you and… that one guy?"

"Naw, I'm single right now." She leaned against the wall of her house, balancing the phone on her shoulder and examining her left hand's nails. "Kind of on the rebound, too. Looking for a desperate guy to take me for a wild ride. You game?"

Tom laughed. "No thanks. Doing just about anything with you would creep me out."

Daphne pretended to be offended. "Why?"

"Because you're my friend's sister. That's just weird."

"He doesn't have to know. Besides, he's not a blood relative… only blood ties matter these days."

"But you live in the same house."

"I can always move back to my old apartment if it'd make you feel better."

"Okay, are you serious?"

Daphne laughed. "You're so gullible, Tom. I love it. You wanna talk to my snot-nosed little brother?"

"Yeah. Answers to Joel."

"He also answers to worm. Did you know that?"

"Nope, that one's new to me."

"Uh-huh. And freakshow." Daphne put the phone to her shoulder and screamed loudly, "HEY, WORM!!" Joel appeared.

"What do you want, D?" he demanded, eyes narrow.

"Tom's on the phone." She handed him the cordless, and when she did her long, black nails scraped Joel's rough hands. It made him shiver.

"Tom?"

The guy on the other line was laughing hard. "You answer to worm?" he asked finally.

"Yeah, the girls think it's attractive."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Daphne said to him. "But if it has anything to do with you, it's not attractive."

"Go away," Joel snapped. "You've done your job."

"Tell Tom I love him," she said as she went to her room. Joel rolled his eyes.

"My step-sister loves you," he muttered into the phone.

"Daphne is the freakiest person I've ever met, but she's pretty funny. The only reason I like her is because she's so insane."

"Hey, hey, remember the other day when you were complaining about the guys talking about Anna? That's me right now."

"I don't mean like her as in I wanna date her, just like her as a friend. She makes me laugh."

"Man, this is gross. Can we talk about something else?"

"Come on, you get a kick out of her, too…"

"Dude, she's a druggie."

"Oh, so whenever she's weird, it's just the weed talking?"

Joel nodded. "That's basically it. She's acting really drunk right now, actually. Sick thing is it's only 3:00."

"How's she acting drunk?"

"She's stumbling and yelling and just… being weird."

"No, she does that when she's sober."

"Why are you calling me?"

"Oh, that. So I'm grounded now from, well, just about everything except thinking, so I decided to think. Very carefully, of course." Joel smirked. "Anyways, I started to wonder if you're right."

"Right about what?"

"Um… everything? I mean, what's the point of my life so far? All I've ever done is drink – all my friends have ever done is drink – and, well, it's just so empty. Like, it distracts us from the pains of life, but it doesn't take them away, right? It's almost better to just face them rather than ignore them."

"Yeah…"

"So… say something."

"Like what? You want me to tell you how right I am?"

"I don't know… talk like Christians talk. Convince me farther. Confirm my thoughts… give me something. Just talk."

"Yeah, you're right. Beer's never done anything for you or me or anyone else that I've ever known of." Joel didn't know exactly what to tell him.

"Are you happy with the way you live?"

"Yeah."

"You'd choose it over, say, Alex's life?"

Joel snorted. "In a second. I'm five times as smart as he is."

"No, I mean with the parties and stuff."

Joel nodded. "Yeah, yeah, I know what you meant. And yes, I would choose my life over his. And what you said about alcohol distracting us from the pains of life… in reality, I think it causes the pains of life. Well, most of 'em, anyways. I realize bad stuff happens that has nothing to do with a bunch of drunk, teenage guys, but it seems like all the bad stuff that's ever happened to us had to do with beer. Except Andy."

"And your mom."

Joel nodded. "And my mom. But, like Jason and Matt and Ross… it messed 'em up. It messed you up, too. Only difference is that you lived to tell about it."

"I can't remember it, anyways. It's just a big headache."

"You don't need to tell me," Joel replied. "I've been there. And by 'headache,' I know you mean that literally. The hangovers, the puking… what's the point?"

"So, maybe I'm done living like this. Maybe I'll join your side."

"We have sides now?"

Tom shrugged. "Sure. Your side and Alex and Brandon's side. I mean, no one's printed off lists, but I think in our minds we all know the sides. Alex, Brandon, and you are leaders; that's just your personality. Alex and Brandon agree on stuff and you don't. Poof, there are the sides. You have two people on your side now, and Alex and Brandon have… well, everyone else. But that's okay, because they'll all die out soon enough, anyways."

Joel smiled. "I don't know if I want them to die or live. I want them to die so they can pay the consequence, but they're my friends. I don't even know what it is I want, exactly. But… anyways, does this mean that you're a Christian, or just a moral atheist?"

"A moral atheist," Tom replied. "Maybe you can eventually get me in a church in a few months, but don't push your luck. Not now."

Joel nodded. "I can respect that. I've waited eight years for one of you guys to chill out… I think I can wait for another year if I have to."

"Good. Don't push me, okay? When I'm ready to get religious, I'll get religious."

Joel winced, knowing that was a dangerous position. Thinking that there was a God but not knowing who He was or which one was just as dangerous as not believing in God at all. However, Joel recognized that Tom's changing his lifestyle was a gift from God, and that God wouldn't let anything happen to Tom until Joel had the chance to help him further, so he decided that he wasn't worried.

"All right, if you say so."

"Tell Daphne I love her, okay? And you know what, you should tell her that you love her, too. She is your sister."

"She's not my sister, she's my step-sister," Joel replied. "If my dad hadn't gotten remarried Daphne would just be some stranger to me, therefore I don't need to love her. I have none of her blood, and she has none of mine."

Tom laughed. "She said the same thing. I mean, about being biologically related was all that mattered."

"That's because I don't like thinking of her as my sister and she doesn't like thinking of me as her brother."

"Well, tell her I love 'er anyways. I'll talk to you later."

"Sure, Tom." Joel hung up and walked over to Daphne's room. He knocked on the door. Daphne heard his knock through her loud music, and she turned it down.

"What, worm?" she called.

"Tom loves you," Joel replied. The door opened quickly revealing Daphne, looking excited.

"Is he still on the phone?" Her tone matched her expression.

"No, I hung up. You can call him back, though."

Daphne shook her head and started to shut her door, but Joel stuck his hand out to stop it from shutting. "What's up with you guys saying you love each other anyways? It creeps me out. I mean, you even told each other that when you both were dating different people."

She shrugged. "It's just this friend thing we do."

"Friend?"

"Yeah, I don't expect you to know what a friend is."

"Well, my friend and my step-sister exchanging 'I love yous' is really weird, so can you cut it out?"

"No way! Tom's so cute…"

"He thinks you're a freak. The only reason he likes you is because he likes to laugh at you." That was partly a lie, partly true. Tom didn't really laugh at Daphne as Joel knew, but he was trying to make the truth as harsh as he could.

"That's so sweet… to be honest, he's a little too goody for me, but he's cute. Hang on to that one."

"Yeah, like I'm gonna listen to your advice on friends. The day I let you spot for me."

"You relate everything to weight lifting, don't you? It's really pathetic."

"It's called physical fitness… I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"No… you can be thin and out of shape at the same time."

Daphne paused. "I have no idea how to take that. I'll see you later, worm." Then she slammed her door in his face.

Joel blinked. He hadn't even insulted her… not really. It didn't even matter, he decided. Who cared what Daphne thought? She just didn't know how to respond, that was the only reason she slammed her door. She'd never had something said to her that wasn't an insult, and she didn't know how to handle it.

"Tom still thinks you're a freak!" Joel called through the door. He always felt like he needed to have the last laugh, so there it was. The response he got was Blink 182 blasting out of her room. He replied by going into his room, which was next to hers, and blasted his Relient K music. They both turned their stereos up, one after the other, competing, until Joel's dad got home. Then they were forced to turn off the music.