Lumen Cove

by Dianne Frost

  “Drew,” Alex growled, reaching to pull his cardigan up his shoulder and stomping over to his brother. “What… what… are you… doing?”

  “Impregnating young minds!” Drew exclaimed and Kelsey pressed her hands to her face.

  “Stop saying that word,” she groaned.

  “Cat’s out of the bag, kiddos,” Drew exclaimed, throwing an arm around Alex’s neck and hugging him roughly. “Mr. Danvers has a twin! How come you never told them about me, baby bro?” Drew tried to give him a noogie and Alex deftly slipped from under his arm, grabbing him by the thumb and jamming his arm up behind his back painfully. “Whoa easy tiger. No fair using the Marine holds on a civilian.”

  “You were in the Marines?” Logan asked and Alex looked at Logan from behind Drew who was breathing heavily, trying to wiggle some off the pressure off of his shoulder.

  “Yeah,” Drew said, “He hunted spies in Russia for six years. OW!” Alex tugged harder on Drew’s thumb and his brother hissed. “You’re gonna dislocate my shoulder.”

  “Good, if you’re in the hospital you’ll be less prone to wander. Now give me back my phone,” Alex demanded, holding out his free hand.

  “What kind of hold is that?” Kelsey heard Logan mutter from the back and she glanced back at him finding him and his other football buddies gazing at Alex with a new found respect.

  “I don’t have your phone,” Drew said petulantly and Alex rolled his eyes tugging a little harder on his arm and Drew gritted his teeth whining. “Fine, fine, fine it’s on the desk. Jesus.”

  Alex looked over and gave Drew a shove as he released him then snatched up his phone. “Class, say goodbye to my brother.”

  “The better looking Mr. Danvers,” Drew teased rubbing his shoulder as he winked at Reva who giggled shrilly. Kelsey hit her in the arm.

  “Drew,” Alex barked and the anger in his voice ceased all chatter in the room, whatever amusement the students were getting from the situation vanished. “Goodbye.”

  “Alright I’m going. Fun talking with you all,” Drew said as he sauntered towards the door. He spun, walking backwards and smirked at Kelsey, “Especially you, Miss Charming.”

  Alex’s head whipped to him and Kelsey swallowed hard as she watched Drew disappear around the door frame, his throaty laugh wafting down the hallway behind him.

  Alex looked back at Kelsey who was biting her lip, the worry line drawn between her brows and he sighed looking down at his phone which was clenched in his fist. He checked it quickly, seeing the XOs from Kelsey and glanced at her again. Her neck was red. He sighed heavily, shoving his phone in his pocket and then leaned heavily on the top of his desk, trying to think. He waited a beat before straightening, running a hand through his sweat-damp hair.

  “I’m… very sorry about that,” Alex said, standing very straight and jutting his chin out. “My brother is… uh… a bit of a prankster.” Alex wiped at his shirt self consciously.

  “What happened to you?” Elliot asked and Alex looked at him, his eyes turning cold.

  “Well, if you must know, I got locked in the softball shed,” Alex snapped. Elliot’s eyes widened. Kelsey looked around and found several people looking like they were trying very hard not to laugh.

  “That hold you did on him. You learned that in the Marines?” Logan asked. Alex looked at him blankly.

  “Yes.”

  “Was that true? About being in Russia for six years?” Ashley Immins asked.

  “Uh,” Alex said, shuffling papers across his desk.

  “You speak Russian though right? Were you like cracking codes and catching spies?” Ryan Shepcut asked from the back row where Kelsey noticed, he, Logan and Joshua Thurbeck were all leaning forward in their seats, riveted.

  “Don’t be stupid, Shep,” Logan said hitting him on the arm, “He can’t tell us that. It’s classified right Mr. Danvers?”

  Alex pinched the bridge of his nose, rubbing slowly and trying to harness his patience, his heartbeat still thudding hard from his escape from the softball shed and his dead sprint across the entire grounds to get back here. His blood was boiling and no amount of counting to ten or meditative breathing was even touching the rage.

  “If your dad was in the Navy why’d you go into the Marines?”

  Alex gritted his teeth against Reva’s question and heard her squeal “Ow” then Kelsey whispered something he didn’t catch.

  “Class you’re dismissed for the day,” Alex said, his head still down and no one moved. “Go. Before I change my mind and make you write essays about literature during the Russian Revolution.”

  “We haven’t covered any Russian Literature…” Megan Shahady said confused.

  Alex looked up at her and her eyes widened as he zeroed in on her. “Then I suggest you leave before I start the timer.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.

  There was a mad scramble for the door as students clamored to not be the last person in the classroom. Alex fell into his chair, leaning back in exhaustion, rubbing his eyes.

  “Al-… er… Mr. Danvers?”

  He fought a groan as he looked up and found Kelsey standing in front of his desk, looking meek but concerned.

  “Not now Kels, please,” he said and she nodded, the concern not leaving her eyes.

  “I just wanted to make sure you were okay,” she said softly and sighed, looking at her with pure misery in his eyes. She swallowed hard. “I’ll… I’ll go…”

  She walked slowly to the door, hoping with all her might that he’d ask her to stop but he didn’t. She looked over her shoulder at him before she left the classroom and he was still sitting there, slouched in his chair, his head hanging back, a marionette with cut strings. She pulled her phone out, shot off a quick text and then walked away, hearing the ding of his phone echo down the hall and wondering if he would even bother to look at it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Alex spent the rest of his afternoon on the water. It was bitter cold, the wind was strong and the sail of the Echo Delta caught and held it. Alex tugged hard on the lines, making her cut through the waves at aggressive tilts. The salt water stung his eyes and burned his tongue as the sky turned darker and the waves became more tumultuous. A storm was coming in, he saw the lightening in the distance, heard the rumble of thunder. Still he pushed it as long as he could, coasting in to the marina as the rain really started to pick up.

  He was drenched by the time he docked the boat and took down her sails, his mouth set in a grim line as he checked all her lines, watching her buoy in the angry water. He walked back to his Tahoe, bone tired and soaked, sliding into the driver’s seat and just sitting behind the wheel, letting his muscles shake from over use. He had left his phone in the cupholder and he glanced at it a few times before actually picking it up.

  He had no notifications.

  He checked his texts just to be sure and the last message he’d received had been around 2pm.

  I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.

  He dropped his phone back in the cup holder and cranked the engine, spitting gravel on his way out of the marina.

  What he very much did not want to see upon entering his condo was Drew in his underwear watching TV and eating takeout. Drew merely looked at him as Alex slammed the door and walked toward the kitchen, dropping his keys noisily on the counter.

  “Rough day, dear?” Drew mocked, slurping noodles and Alex pressed his hands to the counter, his shoulders tight and sore.

  “Do not talk to me right now,” Alex said after a moment, straightening and turning to the cabinet to get a plate. His stomach growled noisily.

  Drew sighed, “Fine.”

  Alex opened the fridge and reached for the left over pad thai from last night but his hand closed on empty air. He heard Drew slurp behind him again and Alex straightened wanting very much to slam the refrigerator door but remembering how much he’d spent on it he closed it delicately instead.

  “Is that my pad thai?” he asked over his shoul
der. There was a pause.

  “I mean it didn’t have your name on it.”

  “Goddammit Drew!” Alex yelled, banging his open palm against the fridge and then pinching the bridge of his nose wearily.

  “Dude you’re gonna have a coronary at 40 if you stay wound as tight as you are,” Drew said, shoveling more noodles into his mouth and Alex sighed, returning his plate to the cabinet.

  “Trust me, brother, if I have a coronary, you will be the cause.”

  “What did I do?” Drew asked indignantly, turning on the couch to glare at Alex who stared back at him slack jawed.

  “Drew,” Alex said and couldn’t help the unbelieving laugh that pulled from his throat. “You locked me in a shed and pretended to be me at my job. I could have been fired for that.”

  “Oh calm down,” Drew said waving a hand at him. “Everyone loves the bait and switch twin thing. You’re not gonna get in trouble for that. Now the texts between you and the Charming girl,” Drew said grinning smugly at him and Alex stood straight, jutting his chin out. “I particularly liked the little tet a tet where you talked about how much you enjoyed going down on her.”

  Alex felt his ears burn, reaching a hand up to rub the back of his neck. “Why were you reading my text messages?”

  “Because you don’t have any kind of ‘hide my texts’ app,” Drew said as if it were obvious. “Thought you’d be more mad about me texting your girl.”

  Alex felt his stomach clench but refused to rise to the bait. “No, I’m more mad that you spent the day trying to fuck with me instead of looking for a goddamn job like I told you to.”

  Drew rolled his eyes. “I put in some applications this morning. Not a lot of opportunities here in Mayberry for a parolee with no car. Hey do you think I could-”

  “If you ask to borrow my truck I will deck you,” Alex warned and Drew snapped his mouth shut, giving his brother a hateful look.

  “I’m just saying if you let me use your wheels you’d have the place to yourself and little Charming could come over for some tutoring if you get my drift.”

  “You know what,” Alex said slicing a hand through the air, “Just stop talking about Kelsey okay. I don’t want to hear her name come out of your mouth again.”

  “I don’t get it man,” Drew said shaking his head. “What is even in this for you? Virgin pussy?”

  “Drew,” Alex said his voice a warning.

  “No, I’m serious,” Drew said, setting the take out container on the coffee table where it fell over and dripped sauce onto the wood. Alex grabbed a dishtowel. “This isn’t you.”

  “You don’t know a thing about me,” Alex snarled, picking up the takeout box and wiping the table.

  “I know you’re my brother. You’re the good twin and I’m the evil twin. And banging an 18 year old is not something the good twin does.”

  “That wasn’t funny when we were kids and it’s not funny now,” Alex said dropping the container in the trash.

  “Mom always thought it was funny,” Drew grumbled and Alex gritted his teeth.

  “Yeah, well, Mom thought the sun shone out your ass so forgive me if I question her bias.”

  Drew snorted. “Yeah, well, you were Dad’s favorite which saved you a couple beatings I’m sure.”

  Alex laughed without humor. “The fuck it did! And Dad didn’t have a favorite. He hated us both equally.”

  It was Drew’s turn to laugh. “Yeah that’s why he left you all the money and the house. Jesus the least he could have done was left me the boat. I spent a whole summer sanding that thing by hand.”

  Alex stared at him wide eyed. “You spent approximately forty-five minutes sanding it and then ran off to put cherry bombs in people’s tail pipes. I helped Dad restore it.” Alex shook his head. “And anyway if he’d left it to you, you would have sold it for a weekend in Vegas.”

  “No I wouldn’t!”

  “Oh really?” Alex mocked, crossing his arms over his chest. “How long were you in jail for this last time, Drew? What would have happened to her then? She would have been repoed for whatever fucked up dirty dealing you did. No Dad left me everything because he also knew you were Mom’s favorite and you could con her out of anything.”

  “Shut up Alex,” Drew said, his voice a warning.

  “She would have ended up bankrupt if he’d left everything to her. God knows where she would have ended up after she got sick-”

  “I said shut the fuck up Alex,” Drew yelled, his eyes ablaze. Alex felt a small sense of satisfaction. “If your little Lolita is off the table so is Mom.”

  Alex snorted, rubbing the back of his neck and they were silent for a moment. Alex could hear Drew grinding his teeth.

  “Seriously dude? You’re gonna fuck up your whole life for some young pussy?” Drew asked and Alex growled, snatching his keys up off the counter and stomping toward the door. “Was it something I said?” Drew’s voice called mockingly after him before the door slammed shut, shaking the walls of the condo.

  Kelsey was sitting at her desk working on a word problem that didn’t seem to have an answer. Adult Male seeks Kid Female. Kid Female acquiesces Adult Male. Kid Female and Adult Male become friends. Kid Female and Adult Male become more than friends. Adult Male becomes distant. Kid Female bridges gap. Adult Male pulls back. Kid Female pushes forward and so on and so forth. She knew it could be a differential equation; perhaps something like

  dK/dt = xA.

  Kid Female’s behavior (K) changes in an instant (dt). The amount of change (dK) is just a multiple (x) of the Adult Male’s (A) current behavior towards her.

  Kelsey frowned, tapping her pencil irritatedly. In this light it showed that the female’s behavior adjusted in direct proportion to how much the Adult Male responded.

  She tried it from another angle.

  dA/dt = -yK.

  She bounced her pencil again. The negative in front of the constant y reflected (A)’s tendency to cool off when (K) was pursuing.

  With these equations and making the assumption that they felt nothing towards each other initially (K and A at beginning of time; t+0) she could use simple calculous to inch K and A forward, incident by incident. In this way she could figure out how much A felt (or didn’t feel) for K at any future time.

  Romance, it turned out, was a simple harmonic oscillator; a force that pushed them together or pulled them apart.

  Her phone buzzed as she was about to start figuring and she glanced at it. The screen did not light up. She looked back to her paper, about to scratch out another differential but stopped, throwing the pencil down and picking up her phone, accessing her hidden messages.

  Alex: What are you doing?

  Kelsey bit the inside of her lip, eyeing her paper.

  Kelsey: Math.

  Alex: Are you home?

  Kelsey swallowed hard, looking around her bedroom.

  Kelsey: Yes.

  Alex: Is your dad there?

  Kelsey snorted, jabbing at the screen with a little more force than necessary.

  Kelsey: Sully is not here. Been gone for days now. Think he got some poor woman to take care of him. Likely won’t be around for at least a month.

  There was a long pause then. Kelsey eventually set the phone down and picked up her pencil again, which was when her phone buzzed.

  Alex: Can I come over?

  Kelsey’s eyes bulged then flicked around her room nervously. Her clothes were still piled high on the chair in the sitting area. She had to call Good Will about Gram’s clothes. She had a precarious pile of research books stacked on one bed side table and an assortment of drinking glasses on the other, all in various states of fullness. Her desk was covered in open textbooks. She could see her towel on the floor in the bathroom. Not to mention whatever state the rest of the place was in. Her phone buzzed again.

  Alex: Please. I’m sorry.

  Kelsey made a strangled sound in her throat, her chest pulling tight and she knew what Reva would say. Reva would tell her to make him
sweat. To make him grovel. Reva would have made him beg on his knees.

  Kelsey: Okay. Dont use front door. Come to slider.

  She didn’t wait for him to respond, just threw herself into motion, grabbing all the glasses from the bedside table and sprinting into the living room. The throw pillows were all over the floor and a few empty beer bottles littered the table but otherwise it looked relatively unscathed. She dumped the cups in the sink, collected the beer bottles and trashed them. She pulled Sully’s door closed and the guest bathroom he was using as his own, making a mental note to call her rental property manager for a recommendation on a cleaning service. The assortment of shoes that had collected by the door went into the hall closet without a glance. She scurried into the kitchen, shoving all the dishes from the sink into the dishwasher and closing it, grabbing the tub of disinfecting wipes and running one over the counters. She ran back into her bedroom where she heaved the books from her bedside table and waddled over to the desk to set them among her other research, trying to arrange it into some semblance of order without losing her place in anything.

  She jumped hearing a soft rap behind her and turned to see a shadow standing just outside the glass. She walked over cautiously and was able to make out Alex’s face, haggard as it was, his hair a wet slick on his head becoming more and more drenched by the second. She hurried then, unlocking it and tugging hard to get it to slide. Alex slipped out of his shoes, picking them up before stepping inside. Kelsey heaved the slider closed behind him as a loud crack of thunder rumbled in the distance.

  “Hey,” she said softly as he reached up to wipe the water from his face. “Uh… I’ll get you a towel.”

  She took his shoes from him and hurried into the bathroom, discreetly picking up her dirty towel as she set his shoes in the shower pan before she walked across the bathroom to the closet. She grabbed a few fresh towels and as she started to make her way back out again she caught sight of herself in the mirror and gasped. Her hair was in a wild bun on top of her head and she was wearing tiny pajama shorts with the ridiculous science sweatshirt that Gram got her two Christmases ago. Gram had said she’d laughed out loud at the “Yeah! Science, Bitch!” part and hoped Kelsey knew who the lady scientist was. Whatever, he’d already seen it, she reasoned and stepped back into the bedroom. He was still standing in front of the slider, looking as if he were trying very hard not to drip on the carpet.