in which neither of them spoke.
“Guess I should let you get to your party planning now,” he said.
“Okay.”
As she walked up to the house she saw a figure move away from a window on the second floor. She groaned. Sure enough, as soon as she was inside, Yull appeared at the top of the stairs. She made a beeline for the living room.
“Just listen to me,” he said. She turned the television on, blasted the volume all the way, went into the adjoining kitchen and took a soda out of the refrigerator.
He followed her. “Don’t let him pressure--”
“I didn’t ask for your advice.”
“Don’t--”
She placed her hands over her ears and began to sing “Purple Rain” loudly. Yull went to the counter, grabbed a pen and paper, and scribbled Do NOT sleep with Alex Deal on it. Casey took the paper from him, read it, and crumpled it up. He sighed and threw his hands up in the air. “Don’t blame me when he breaks your heart.” He began to leave the kitchen.
When he reached the door she spoke. “Why did you tell me not to let him pressure me?”
He turned and folded his arms over his chest. “So he has been?”
“I didn’t say that. I just wanted to know why of all things that’s what you chose to say about him.”
Yull walked back to the counter. “Because he has a reputation, that’s why. And it’s not a very nice one.”
She frowned. Oh come now Yull was just threatened by the thought of Casey getting to be as popular as he was by way of dating Alex Deal. He did not know Alex Deal the way she did. What they had was…“What?” she asked.
He sat. “What what?”
“What’s his reputation?”
“That he likes to play it all nice and indie rock but in reality is into getting as many notches on his belt as possible.”
“But he likes The Ramones.”
“Ask Melanie Corcoran if you don’t believe me.”
“She’s a slut.”
“No she’s not. She’s really nice. She dumped Alex because she felt like he pressured her to have sex right away and then was always checking out other girls when they were in public.”
“Did she?”
“Did she what?”
“Have sex with him.”
Yull nodded. “Did you?”
“No.”
“Be honest.”
“I am being honest. I didn’t.” She turned the T.V. down and went over to the fancy china cabinet. Tricia kept junk food there. The theory was that if she kept it away from the main food stores household members would not eat it on a frequent basis. The theory did not hold true.
She took out a box of double stuff Oreos, brought them to the kitchen table, and began eating one in the only manner any human should ever eat a double-stuff Oreo: by licking out the white stuff and tossing the half-eaten chocolate bits in the kitchen sink. Yull joined in. “Do you want to talk about it more?” he asked.
“Remember those things Hostess used to make that were pink and coconutty?”
“They had cream in the middle, right?”
“They were made by Hostess, Einstein.”
“Snoballs.”
“Right. You never see those in stores anymore. Why’s that?”
He shrugged. “Beats me.”
“Think you can buy them online?”
“Probably.”
Casey nodded and dug into another Oreo. A moment passed. “Do you think maybe he just hasn’t met a girl who understands him yet?”
“You mean like one with dirty hair and Kurt Cobain T-shirts?”
“Don’t ruin your indoctrination of me into the fag hag sorority,” she said. He gave her the finger. “There’s something I never told you. About him,” she added.
“What?”
“We had a thing for a couple of days at the end of the summer, when you and Mom were away looking at colleges.”
“What kind of ‘thing?’”
“We saw a movie and went to the beach and ate funnel cake and I slept over.”
Yull looked strange for a moment, as if he was realizing something. “This was right before Labor Day weekend?”
“Yeah.”
“That explains it.”
“What?”
“At that seniors only party when he hooked up with Melanie. He got really weird when I showed up.” This made Casey feel both good and bad. “Are you sure you didn’t sleep with him?” he asked.
“Yes Yull. I’m sure.” She leveled her most recent Oreo conquest towards the sink. It missed and landed in the middle of a potted cactus. “If you truly want to be a caring brother you won’t remove that from the cactus until Tricia’s seen it.”
He shook his head. “I don’t think his problem is that he hasn’t met a girl who understands him yet. It’s like a game for him. Or maybe he doesn’t