Chapter 4 – Not Like Himself
"Kitty, what have I told you about our "competition"?" Emma asked angrily.
"I know, never trust the other players, evil, bad, blah, blah, blah." Kitty replied sarcastically.
"So why were you talking to the Stepbrothers?"
"Relax, I just asked Lorenzo what he said to convince Chet to wear the skirt."
"Remind me which one is which?"
"Lorenzo is the skinny one. Chet… isn't."
"Oh, right. So, what did he say?"
"I don't know. He didn't tell me."
"But you talked about something."
"Well, yeah, but-"
"So, what was it? Oh, don't tell me, they're soul mates or something?"
Kitty didn't say anything. Emma's eyes widened and she laughed.
"You're kidding, right, Kit?" When Kitty didn't reply, Emma laughed harder. The other racers turned their heads towards their table, and Kitty grimaced.
"So let me get this straight…" Emma began, almost out of breath. "The Stepbrothers… are… soul mates?" She said loud enough for Lorenzo and Chet to hear at their table on the other side of the dining area. Their eyes widened with shock.
"Kitty!" Lorenzo exclaimed.
"I didn't tell her! She just guessed!" Kitty yelled in her defence.
Some of the other racers laughed with Emma, namely the meaner ones, Josée, Jacques, Noah, Stephanie, Taylor, Macarthur, Dwayne, and even Devin. Lorenzo pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. Great. Now everyone was going to make comments. They always did, especially when it was scandalous. Soul mates were considered a very important and serious matter, so if two siblings were discovered to be soul mates, there would most definitely be comments. The nicest comment one could make was "that's unfortunate". Lorenzo would be hearing a lot of that in the future.
"YOU TOLD HER?" Chet practically screamed at Lorenzo.
"What? No, she just guessed." Lorenzo replied calmly. He was too tired to argue right now.
"BULLSHIT!" Chet was going to lose his voice if he kept screaming the way he was. Actually, come to think of it, Lorenzo could live with that. "HEY, DADDY'S GIRL! ANSWER ME!"
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?" Lorenzo retaliated. He suddenly felt a new surge of energy, enough to take Chet down in a fight.
"YOU HEARD ME, BITCH!"
Lorenzo tackled his stepbrother to the ground. They wrestled for a bit, the other racers still laughing at them, before Chet eventually fought his way on top, holding Lorenzo down by squeezing his hands tight around Lorenzo's throat. Lorenzo clawed at Chet's hands and arms, before going limp. Chet loosened his grip, and realised that Lorenzo was unresponsive. Chet's heart started beating faster than he thought possible. He shook Lorenzo; unaware that everyone around him had stopped laughing. All that mattered right now was Lorenzo, and if Lorenzo were dead, Chet would never forgive himself.
"Lorenzo! Wake up! Oh, please wake up!" He shook Lorenzo more vigorously. Tears welled up in his eyes.
But they never left his eyes, because Lorenzo started to laugh. Chet let go of Lorenzo and blinked in shock. He was furious that Lorenzo had tricked him, but also glad because at least Lorenzo was alive. His heartbeat returned to normal. He let out a sigh of relief before punching Lorenzo in the stomach and storming off to the trailers.
Later that evening, Lorenzo came out of the showers and started walking towards the trailers when he saw Chet sitting on his own at a table. He walked over and sat opposite from his stepbrother, who had a cup of hot chocolate in front of him. Chet didn't acknowledge Lorenzo's presence, instead watching the marshmallow melt in his drink.
"Hey." Lorenzo stated. Chet grunted in response. "You okay?" Lorenzo asked.
"No." Chet replied.
"What's wrong?"
"Why do you care?"
Lorenzo sighed. That was a pretty good point. Why did he care? That wasn't like him at all. He supposed he was too tired to argue or poke fun.
"Chet?" he asked.
"What?" Chet responded.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have… uh, done… what I did." Lorenzo felt awkward. He wasn't used to apologising. It just wasn't something he did.
Chet looked up, and Lorenzo saw that his eyes were red from crying. Chet wasn't normally a crier, unless he was watching Dumbo. He could go through a whole box of tissues when he was watching that movie. Lorenzo sighed.
"Chet?" Lorenzo asked again.
"Yeah?" Chet replied.
"Do you ever… feel like… like one minute, you want something so badly that it hurts, and the next minute you wish it was off planet?"
"That something being…?"
"You."
"What?"
"That something being you. Like, sometimes I want you so bad, I'd do literally anything for you, and I'm just not myself… and the rest of the time I wish I'd never met you, and everything's normal. Do you know what I mean?"
"Y-yeah."
"If this is love, I hate it."
"Me too."
"Hey, we finally agreed on something. That's not like you at all."
"Shut up."
End Chapter 4