Every Day has a Memory

Chapter 9

I smirked,turning my attention back to the screen of my laptop. In a few weeks' time, my parents were having a vowel renewal for their twenty-five year anniversary, and my sister said that we should both write a speech—which I though was an utterly stupid suggestion, because I had no idea what to say.

All I'd written so far was "Mom, Dad... you've been together for a while, and I'm surprised you're not sick of each other yet..." But I was pretty sure that neither of them would appreciate that.

I hit backspace, then flopped back on the couch, shoving the laptop off my lap, onto a cushion beside me. This was so stupid—why did my sister think I was capable of achieving this?

Then again, she'd finished and edited her draft and published her good copy for the anniversary already.

Ugh. Alicia was such a fucking nerd.

She was probably only doing this to make me look like the worst son ever.

Well, screw her and her stupid nerdy and academic standards—she can shove them up her ass. I was never good at English—that was actually a great lie; I was never good at school in general. And it sucked, because I was always known as the "dumb" twin. But I wasn't dumb, I just wasn't up to the standards of my fancy-ass school.

Geez. Why did she get a brain and I just got... whatever else you got if you didn't get a brain? It wasn't fair.

Luca glanced up at me from where he was curled up on the lounge carpet with drowsy eyes—even though he did absolutely nothing all day except sleep, eat, walk from the bedroom to the lounge, then sleep some more.

"What?" I sneered at the dog.

He didn't respond, of course, just stared. Dumbly, at that.

Stupid dog, I thought crudely. Though, admittedly, he had grown on me. Sort of. It was kind of like the way gum got stuck on the bottom of your shoe—you could never get rid of it, no matter how hard you try, and then you're just sort of... stuck with it. And plus, with the way Tamsyn made me drag him everywhere, he'd kind of become a part of my daily routine—and I only ever resulted in calling him stupid when I was a bad mood.

Like now. Otherwise, he and I were usually pals.

I let out a dramatic whining cry. "Luca, boy, why can't I write a goddamn speech? It's for my parents—which should be easy—but I have no fucking idea what to say." I had no idea why I was telling him this—he was a dog that didn't even understand me 99% of the time.

It didn't stop me from continuing, though. "Should I write, like, 'Yo, Mom and Dad, thanks for being a'ight at parentin—" I cringed at what I just started. "What the fuck am I doing? I'm not a fucking gangster." Why was this so much harder than it needed to be?

God. I needed Tamsyn's help. "Tamsyn!" I called in the direction of the bathroom. She usually could here me when she was in the shower, which made it easier for me to annoy her. "Baby, help me out here." When she didn't respond, I sighed—and then there were moments like these where she couldn't hear me from the bathroom, and I physically needed to move myself from where I was to the bathroom so that she could here me.

But then again, I was bored and needed someone to talk to other than the dog, in case I started going insane. Usually, I had Alicia here if Tam couldn't hear me from the shower, and she kept me sane until Tamsyn got out—but she had left earlier to go run a few errands.

Dragging myself off the couch upholstery to my feet and straightened my shirt, then ran my fingers rakishly through my newly shortened blonde hair. I'd just gotten a trim off the back and sides a few days ago, and it still surprised me to feel how light it was.