Believe Me, I'm Lying

:Believe Me, I'm Lying: 21

The sound of rain pounding on the school’s roof was the only noise in the room. Joey and Joel sat across from me, looking bored. I glanced at the clock, pursing my lips. It had only been five minutes since they arrived— that meant we still had forty-five minutes to sit through before we could all go home.

“So,” I started, folding my hand on my desk. “How are you two?”

“Fine,” Joey responded, making eraser drawings on his desk with his pencil.

“Joel?”

“Fine.”

I smiled, waiting for either of the twins before me to say more. They didn’t, and an awkward silence settled in, once again allowing the sound of rain to fill the room. “How was your school day?” I tried.

“Fine,” the boys responded simultaneously.

I grimaced. How was I supposed to get them to get along when they wouldn’t even talk to me? “Joey, you really liked today’s chicken, huh?”

“It was good,” Joey commented with a shrug.

Joel rolled his eyes. “It tasted like crap.”

“Maybe you cooked it the wrong way,” Joey suggested, smirking at his brother. “You’re too stupid to read instructions the right way.”

“It makes your hands smell weird…” Joel raised his hand to his face, wrinkling his nose. “Really bad.”

Curiously, Joey raised his hand to his face and sniffed cautiously. I knew what was coming before Joel even moved. Before I could warn Joey, Joel had already slammed his hand into Joey’s, making Joey slap himself in the face. Joey scowled, shoving Joel away from him. Joel shoved Joey back, and soon they were in a mini-shoving match. A sigh escaped my lips.

“You guys, stop it, ” I ordered, pushing myself away from my desk and going over to them.

“Do you know if your hand is bigger than your head you’re stupid?”

Joel rolled his eyes. “I know that trick.”

“Or are you just afraid your stupid?” Joey asked, smiling smugly.

Joel scowled, raising his hand to his face. I stared at him. Was he serious? As soon as Joel had his hand close enough to his face, Joey smacked his fist into it, making Joel slap himself in the face.

Before I could stop myself, I burst out laughing. “Did you really just fall for that? You just did the same trick to him five seconds ago, Joel!”

Joel and Joey gave me surprised looks. I covered my mouth immediately.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized. “I shouldn’t laugh…”

The twins exchanged a look, and then shrugged at me. “It’s fine,” they told me in unison.

I nodded, and once again an awkward silence filled the room. I stared at the floor for a few minutes, trying to think of something else to say. “Um, what did you guys do to get in here?” I finally asked, trying to be casual about it. I didn’t really expect them to answer.

There was silence for a moment, and I looked up to see Joel and Joey quickly looking away from each other. Puzzled, I gave them a questioning look, but they ignored it.

Joey grinned, his eyes flickering to me. “We robbed our old school.”

I blinked, surprised that he had actually answered such a private question, and surprised by his answer. “You robbed a school?”

“It was easy,” Joel told me, a small smirk tugging at his lips. “We would have gotten away with it too, but our mom found our goods. Thanks to Joey,” he added with a scowl and dirty look to his brother.