Sugar and Pepper (10)
Edited: 2012.07.21
NINE
* TEN *
01.
"When is your birthday?"
Jun blinked up from his homework and stared at his brother sprawled across the floor, in the midst of drawing.
"When...?" Satoshi repeated, losing his courage to voice the rest.
"August 30th," Jun replied.
"Oh," Satoshi sounded and went back to focus on his sketch.
Jun was now curious. Twisting in his seat to face Satoshi, he demanded, "Why did you ask?"
And of course, Satoshi did not answer. Jun waited. Satoshi continued to draw and Jun continued to patiently wait.
Growing self-conscious, the older boy surrendered and murmured, "She asked, but I didn't know."
"Who asked?" Jun questioned.
"O-ooshima," Satoshi mumbled, still focused on his sketch. "I'm going to introduce her to you."
"WHO?" Jun repeated, alarmed and confused.
In the end, Satoshi stood and ran out of the room to avoid answering. Watching his older brother scurry away, Jun couldn’t help but think him as adorable and funny.
02.
Jun's friends tried to kidnap him at noon. He went with them after much persuasion and although he wondered if he should have taken Satoshi along, his friend's plans ended that idea.
"No one's home at Sai's and he knows where his brother keep the AVs," his friend whispered as they moved away from Jun's house.
"How long are they out?" Jun asked, wanting to be cautious still.
"Long enough," was the simple reply.
03.
A while later, on screen the woman moaned as the man licked his way down her throat to her exposed breasts. His hands traveled down her hips to the cleft between her thighs. She gasped and the boys leaned in closer to see the full view. All except one.
Though, Jun was interested (he was a teenage boy after all), he felt uncomfortable. He found that his eyes drifted to the male. That disturbed him. They had been watching porn nonstop for two hours. Since the first sex scene, Jun had felt a knot in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't tell his friends.
One of his friends leaned forward and discreetly clutched himself. Sitting further back than everyone, Jun noticed and he understood. His own blood pumped and his hormones raged. Yet, he still felt wrong.
04.
With Jun gone and Mr. Matsumoto on another fishing excursion, Satoshi had lunch alone with his mother. It was not the first time, but it was no different from the first. They kept silent and the television rambled on. Every now and then, his mother laughed as did the audience on screen, but Satoshi could not bring himself to pay attention.
He liked his mother, loved her easy laugh, and admired her patience when dealing with him, but he felt awkward around her. He knew she felt the same. She tried her best to treat him no differently from Jun, but Satoshi also knew that they could not easily break the ice that had formed between them over their lost years.
When he finished, his mother finally turned to him and asked, "Done?"
He nodded and went to discard the rest of his plate before putting it in the sink.
As Satoshi made his way upstairs, his mother called, "I'll bring you a snack later."
He wanted to tell her to forget it, to not bother with him, but the words wouldn't come.
Instead, Satoshi rushed up the stairs and wished either his stepfather or Jun would return soon, particularly Jun.
05.
Jun did not spoil his friends' fun by requesting to leave early, but he did depart at the first opportunity that presented itself. When the car of his friend's parents drove into the driveway, the boys quickly turned off the television and stowed the adult videos where they originally belonged.
The group then rushed to his friend's room. There, they planned their next move and Jun suggested ending their day, which was unanimously agreed upon. Subsequently, Jun reached his house less than an hour later and was relieved to step inside, away from the misery that he left behind. It was late evening by that time and his father was already home.
Mr. Matsumoto was having his dinner alone and Mrs. Matsumoto was in the living room lazily flipping through a magazine. When she saw her youngest son, she asked if he'd eaten.
"I did," Jun lied and went up to his room to avoid being questioned further.
He looked in and found Satoshi spread out across the floor, his face pressed against the pages of his sketchbook as if he had fallen asleep unintentionally.
Jun was grateful for that. He grew self-conscious as he took off his clothes for a shower. His eyes darted to his brother every so often to make sure that the older boy was still sleeping and wasn't sure why he suddenly cared.
Before his fears came true, Jun rushed to the bathroom.
06.
After his shower, Jun went to bed without waking his brother. Satoshi roused from his uncomfortable position a few minutes later with his body aching. The room was dark, the lights were off, and he found to his dismay that the page he had been drawing on was ruined by his drool.
"Jun?" Satoshi whispered in the darkness, wondering if his brother had come home.
"Mm..." Jun answered from beneath his covers where he had dived under.
"Oh," Satoshi sounded, assured that Jun was there and he wondered why his brother had allowed him to sleep the way he had been. But he proceeded to his futon without another sound.
He was on the verge of sleep again, quickly forgetting his precious sketchbook, when Jun broke into his peaceful conscience with, "I'd like to meet her."
"Mm?" Satoshi nonverbally asked, wanting to be left alone.
"Ooshima," Jun clarified. "I'd like to meet her."
Satoshi feigned sleep.
Believing his act, Jun spoke no more.
But in the silence, Satoshi wanted to believe that he had been dreaming.
* *
ELEVEN