by Kim Cormack
She stopped walking and looked behind her. It felt like she was being watched. Kayn shivered as an icy breeze passed through her, fluttered through the grass, carried on up the hill and stirred up the dust on the track. That was weird? She just needed a rest. She must have overworked herself today. Kayn shook her head as she looked up at the trees surrounding the track. They were completely still? A random cold spot on a swelteringly hot day was more than a little bit strange. Kayn turned her attention back to her friend while attempting to hush the nagging voice in the back of her mind that kept repeating the words, Something’s wrong.
“Did someone walk over your grave?” Kevin whispered in Kayn’s ear, breaking the silence.
She smiled at Grandma Winnie’s quote. That was something Kevin’s grandmother always said if someone shivered in her presence. If you sneezed she’d say a ghost walked through you and if you shivered that meant someone had just walked over your grave.
Her retort was always, “But I’m not dead, Granny.”
Granny would answer with something ominous like, “If only you knew how irrelevant the word dead actually is in the grand scheme of things.”
Kevin’s grandmother seemed to have a direct line to the spirit world and nearly all of her random thoughts were more than a wee bit creepy. Sometimes his grandmother would spend hours just chatting with Kayn about her dreams. Granny Winnie was a quirky, warm, witty woman that had treasured her from day one. Kayn was a faithful member of Team Granny because she, unlike the rest of the planet seemed to despise her sister Chloe. Granny Winnie couldn’t even breathe when Chloe was in the same room. Granny would pretend to gasp for oxygen or make a foul stench related declaration referring to Chloe. She was believable enough to cause a, perfect in her own mind Chloe to smell her own armpits. Chloe, being completely void of respect for her elders or pretty much anybody else, would refer to her as a crazy old bat or a witch. Often Granny Winnie would call Chloe out on an evil deed or two as if she had read her mind.
Strange weather we’ve been having lately, Kayn thought as she watched the clear blue sky change in a matter of moments from completely cloudless to a powder of fluffy white clouds everywhere. Her pulse raced, and all she could smell was the scent of fresh cut grass and pine needles from the trees that lined one side of the track. It struck her as odd…they were quite a distance from the trees. She could hear the amplified sound of the grass rustling underfoot and she felt uneasy. Snapping back to reality as Kevin’s feet came into her line of sight. She raised her eyebrows at him and pointed to his untied shoelaces. Kevin bent over in front of her to tie up his shoes.
Kayn began to speak as if she were reading his obituary. “I can see the paper now; it would read something like this: Kevin Smith was a wonderful boy, so smart and good looking but a little clumsy. Had he only tied his shoes he wouldn't have fallen down the stairs and found himself impaled on a janitor’s broom. Remember kids… Tie your shoes… Safety first.”
“Have I told you lately that you’re an asshole?” Kevin stated when she finished the latest version of his obituary.
Kayn didn’t have a comeback. She glanced behind her and then from side to side, unable to shake the unnerving feeling that something was coming. There was a hollow ache in her chest and a strange sensation that lingered each time she swallowed.
Kevin leaned in and whispered in her ear, “You sure you’re okay, because your sketchy behavior is starting to creep me out.”
Kevin’s warm breath in her ear caused her to shiver again and she had the strangest urge to lean over and kiss him square on the lips. It must be low blood sugar or something? She replied, “No... Just over tired I guess.” She glanced behind them.
“Stop looking behind us, you’re freaking me out!” Kevin asserted.
She shook her head and giggled, “I don’t know what’s wrong with me today, I’m sorry.”
He raised his eyebrows in her direction, then twirled around in a circle and added, “Nobody is coming, I swear.”
“I know,” Kayn answered. “I’m feeling a little off. Maybe I’m coming down with something?”
“We should be more worried about your creepy behavior causing you a nasty case of whiplash.” Kevin said as he flung his arm around her shoulder and gave her a buddy-like squeeze. “You should go have a shower, muffin; your kind of sweaty and nasty. What do you do, cover yourself in honey before you go for a run?” Kevin chuckled as he smelled his hands and groaned, “Ewww, that’s not honey.”
Kayn sparred, “There you go talking all dirty again, literally; it’s kind of hot, all this talk of toxins and waste.”
“What was your boyfriends’ name again, Kayn?” Kevin asked innocently.
They were walking together, and she gave him a solid shove in jest. “You should call up your invisible girlfriend and ask her what her name is love monkey,” she jeered and winked.
“I have a girlfriend. Her name is Chloe. She just doesn’t know it yet,” he teased.
He couldn’t help himself. She knew this. He was well aware that constant talk of her sister irritated her to no end. It was his easy smack down in a comedy standoff.
“Do you know what the difference between you and a stalker is?” she responded sweetly.
“Do tell, oh wise and mighty stalking connoisseur,” he sighed.
“It's whether or not you’re wearing my sister’s stolen thong underwear right now,” she teased. Kayn wrestled with Kevin while attempting a stealth look down the back of his shorts.
“Hey, hey… simmer down. I swear, I will yell rape. I'm going commando. Pulling my shorts off is not a great idea,” he laughed as he fended her off.
“Like you could handle me,” She chuckled. Kayn cringed with pain as she shifted her bag to her other shoulder. It always had twenty pounds of books in it. She could never memorize her locker combination. She was utterly horrible with numbers. That was her excuse. The real reason probably being that she would be obliged to speak to the vapid girls that hung out around her locker. She liked to be left alone in her own little world.
Kevin grabbed her heavy bag off of her as he added, “Hey, I’ll have you know that I have been going commando since my first wedgie in fifth grade. Once they grab for underwear and don’t find any, they back right off.”
Kayn doubled over into a fit of giggles. She chuckled, “I honestly don't doubt that for a second.”
“You learn lots of nifty little things that help you maneuver through geekdom unscathed if you’re crafty, you know,” he said as they began walking again.
Kevin was carrying both of their bags. She knew he was trying to be a gentleman and that was adorable but she also knew how heavy her bag was. She smiled as she took her bag back. It was in these sweet moments that she wondered if they would ever be something more. Would he ever make a move on her? She wasn't sure if he had any moves. If he ever tried something, she’d probably just assume it was a joke. He caught her staring and knit his brow. What was she even thinking? She was hormonal or something today. He was her best friend.
He nudged her and teased, “So, about that Chloe thing we were discussing earlier. Is it that impossible in your mind?”
Kayn was beginning to grow tired of the fact that more and more of their conversations had become centered around her sister.
She shot a somewhat disapproving glance at Kevin and said pleasantly, “Let’s stop talking about Chloe all of the time. Frankly, I’m sick of it.”
“Shush,” he quietly responded as he placed one finger directly over her pursed lips. “You know not to speak of her voodoo powers.”
She grinned because it was the truth. The phrase, “Chloe has a boyfriend” was easily compared to cursing out loud in the Brighton household. Her sister would find herself running like she was on fire from every boy she’d ever attempted to date. Seemingly normal boys would gradually lose their marbles. It was as if the pressure of being close to her would make their sanity unfold like a reversal of an origami swan. It would start with a vehicle outside of
the house in the middle of the night, and rapidly escalate. Once Chloe grew bored or annoyed by their obsessive behavior, she inevitably dumped them cold.
On occasion, random guys would break into their house to steal objects that belonged to her. In the beginning, the police thought Chloe must be doing something to bring this on herself, but after she went in for a couple interviews at the police station and full grown men couldn’t help but fawn all over her sister. They all understood what Kayn had always known…Voodoo Powers.
“We shouldn't even be joking about this stuff. The breakups with the last three or four of her boyfriends turned out to be pretty damn scary situations,” she said in a hushed tone. The last thing Kayn needed was to be caught talking about it by one of her sister’s minions.
Kevin turned and gave her a strange look that said, think about what you just said for a second, and they both broke into a fit of giggles.
A giant stinging slap followed on her butt. There stood Chloe, Kayn’s infamous and moderately evil twin. The living breathing cover girl commercial was gracing us with her badass presence. Chloe smiled at her, and gave a slight glance acknowledging Kevin’s presence. He turned ten shades of red as though she had whispered something dirty in his ear. He’s completely pathetic, Kayn thought while shaking her head.
Chloe threw an arm around her, then jumped away saying, “Ewww, yuck, gross, you’re all sweaty and nasty. Listen, you backstabbing witch with a B, I’m not feeling that hot today. I’m on my way home. Do you need a ride?”
Chloe always donned a giant, gorgeous, show stopping smile. It was like every moment of her life was one strange, endless, beauty pageant. She had a sarcastic sense of humor that Kayn never took seriously.
“I’m not going home. I'm going to go have a shower, and then go to Kevin’s house for dinner,” Kayn replied.
Chloe leaned over and kissed her sister’s sweaty cheek, quietly whispering, “Yes…Go have that shower.” Her sister dramatically sighed and added, “I’m grounded again for no good reason. I’ll see you later sis.”
“Shocking,” Kevin murmured as they walked away.
Kayn suspected that her sister Chloe got herself grounded on purpose. Just to have a forced break from her social responsibilities. If medals were doled out in the Olympics for groundings achieved in a three-year period, her sister Chloe would have the equivalent of a gold medal.
“Bye Kevy!” Chloe yelled behind her as she flounced off.
“Yup… Voodoo powers,” Kevin whispered to Kayn.
“I heard that Kevin. You're a little stinker,” she sang back.
Kayn smiled at Kevin, casually adding, “I bet when you thought of sexy nicknames she would call you in your fantasies, little stinker wasn’t one of them.”
She couldn’t help herself; he’d left it wide open, and she was on a roll. Kevin turned around and socked her in the arm.
She stopped, spun around to face him, and said, “Seriously, you hit me. I can’t believe you would do that.” She glared at him accusingly while feigning pain as she rubbed her arm appearing to be genuinely upset.
“I was just kidding. I didn’t actually hurt you, did I?” Kevin whispered. He knew he’d been had, when Kayn’s serious look crumbled into a grin.
She said, “Woman abuse,” and smoked him on the arm twice as hard.
“What woman? I don’t see a woman anywhere around here. Oh, you mean you?” he countered as he rubbed his still throbbing arm. Kevin continued to pretend to look around for a moment.
“I will butt you out like a cigarette, little man!” She made a fist for a joke duel.
Kevin glared at her. Oh, no, he had that expression… Game over. Whoops...She had gone too far. It was all fun and games until someone made one too many short jokes with Kevin.
“I am not little,” he exclaimed. Kevin stomped away from her, towards the covered entrance to the facility.
“Okay, how about vertically challenged?” Kayn innocently replied. She was digging her own grave, and she knew it. Kevin could argue for hours. He could debate something forever and wear anyone out.
“I might look short to an Amazonian like you,” he countered.
“Touché,” she said smiling. She knew better than to push it, because if he kept it up, the laughter she’d been trying to suppress would escape.
“I am still growing,” he complained, his voice cracked a little.
Kayn doubled over laughing. She couldn’t help it with the well-timed voice crack.
“Can you please be done laughing now,” Kevin said as they walked into the fitness center.
“I’ll see you outside in fifteen minutes, you sexy stud,” she whispered, sultry as a porn star. Kayn was still grinning as she pushed through the door to the girls’ changing room.
“Quit mocking me, Amazonian woman,” he yelled dramatically from behind her.
As she entered the changing room, Kevin’s last joking retort bounced off the walls of the concrete and tile room. The cool floor soothed her aching feet. It had only taken her a matter of months to wear out another pair of running shoes. Her mom would kill her if she asked for another pair this year. She dropped her runners. The sound of her shoes landing on the tiles, echoed and repeated a few times making it sound like someone had dropped more than one pair. She was alone. Kevin was waiting for her but there was no hurry. He was probably having a coffee and ogling the girls swim team; he was fine. Kayn stripped down and gazed at her reflection. She pulled her hair out of her ponytail, and it fell in damp loose ringlets down her bare shoulders. She tilted her head to one side and posed seductively. Her face was freckled from hours of training in the hot sun. In the winter, her freckles disappeared and her skin was porcelain white. Maybe, she should start wearing makeup to school? She could look just like Chloe if she wanted to. Kayn sucked in her cheeks, plastered a giant pageant style smile on her face and scrunched up her nose. She enjoyed being dorky and a little bit weird. It would take far too much effort to pull off her sister’s level of perfection. She didn’t need to be perfect. She would wither and fade if she had to live her life under a microscope. She did prefer to let her strange roam free.
Her stomach cramped. She stopped and glanced over her shoulder at her reflection in the mirror one last time on her way towards the showers as the earlier conversation with her sister flashed through her memory. Chloe was feeling sick today; that’s what was going on then. Kayn quite often had sympathy illness whenever her twin wasn’t feeling one hundred percent.
Kayn pulled aside the plastic curtain and leaned in to turn on the water, it began to tap dance against the bottom of the stall, and when it was just the right temperature she stepped under the spray and smiled as the water beat against her weary exercise savaged muscles. She lathered herself up with the lovely scented pump soap and started humming a few bars of her favorite running song. Just as she began to let go and sing the words, she heard the door open. Feeling awkward, she silently, rinsed herself off, stepped out of the shower and started to towel dry her hair. She didn’t hear any footsteps and there appeared to be nobody else in the change room with her…Weird? As she passed by the mirror again, she glanced at her reflection and wondered if Chloe ever wanted to be more like her. She quickly blew off that completely nutty idea.
Kayn was five minutes younger than her sister Chloe, but her twin acted five years older. Kayn had no voodoo powers with men; she was awkward and possessed no game at all. Maybe she should ask Chloe how she did it and if she would she teach her something…anything? It would be nice if someone asked her on a date before she was eighty. Kevin’s obsession with Chloe was really beginning to irritate her. Having feelings for him wouldn’t be a great move friendship-wise. There it was again… that ominous word…friends.
Kayn towel dried herself off, feeling the moisture from her still damp hair as it trailed in a river down her spine. As she dressed, her train of thought kept travelling back to the possibility that she might have feelings for her best friend. What was with he
r thoughts today? She grabbed her bag, hoping Kevin hadn’t reached the point of being epically frustrated while waiting for her. She forced open the door with an over-exaggerated grunting sound and saw him sitting on the railing waiting patiently for her. He was looking up at the sky with his mouth agape in a totally comical way.
Kayn walked up to him and teased, “Trying to catch flies?”
“Always,” Kevin sparred with a dimpled grin and quick wit.
“What are we looking at?” Kayn said as she stared towards the heavens and made the same open-mouth face of awe.
“Come with me, and I’ll show you,” Kevin laughed. He grabbed her hand, as they started to walk towards the field.
Kayn had lived this moment a thousand times. Kevin laid down in the grass, and she did the same.
“Oh, wow. I get it. Look at how fast the clouds are moving. I noticed that earlier… it’s almost creepy. I wonder if there’s a storm coming?” Kayn whispered while observing the sky from her spot in the plush cushion of greenery. Suddenly, a sharp pain seared through her core. She grabbed her stomach, sucked a deep breath in and gasped, “What the hell was that?”
“You okay, Brighton?” Kevin asked as he sat up and reached for her.
Kayn winced again as she doubled over, with her insides afire with another strange penetrating pain. Kevin placed his hand on her stomach, and the pain disappeared as quickly as it had begun.
He looked at her and stated, “I bet you need a big glass of water, and something to eat?”
She stood up, and attempted to shake off the sensation that she was missing something. It was probably just a twin thing but he was right, she’d skipped lunch. She was dehydrated and hungry. With the pain suddenly gone, she replied, “Yeah, that’s probably it.”
“You skipped lunch again, didn’t you?” he scolded with a disapproving look.
She admitted, “Guilty as charged, I do believe that I did not eat lunch today.” There was a very simple explanation for the sharp undefined pain that she had experienced. Kayn was often practicing at lunchtime and would forget to eat. Shivers crawled up her spine and she felt the urge to look behind her. Concerned, she spun around, trying to shake off the uncomfortable feeling that had been plaguing her all afternoon. Something in her mind was still whispering, be careful, Kayn. She shook off the anxious feeling. It’s probably low blood sugar or the heat. She recalled that the last horror movie they’d watched together. It had taken place at a lake. There they stood by the turn off to Lakeshore Drive. It was probably just a mix of a bunch of things. Low blood sugar, heat exhaustion, and recalling a horror movie was enough to make anyone feel a bit wonky. She laughed at her overactive imagination.