The Beautiful You

Twenty - i can't breathe

Mei and Lee drove silently back to my house. The original plan was to stay over at Mei's house, but they thought it would be better for me to rest at home. It felt like they wanted to get rid of me. Mei and Lee would glance at each other every now and then and I knew it was because I looked exhausted. I would catch Lee's eyes in the rear view mirror every few seconds. I shifted in my seat as I turned to face the window.

"We're almost there," Lee said.

"I recognize my own neighborhood," I muttered.

I stared ahead, and from the backseat I could see Mei's face reflecting off the passenger side mirror. She was wiping away silent tears. Mei never asked questions, especially when they came to me. She accepted me as I was, and I liked that about her. But sometimes it must be exhausting. She must worry a lot.

"Apollo, I called your house but—"

"What?" I groaned.

"Dude, I didn't know what to do!" Lee shouted. "Are you seriously going to be mad at me for that?" He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, My mom is going to freak out when she finds out I was at a party! And that I—" I paused. "You know."

Lee scoffed, "No, no, I don't know! I don't know what happened."

"She's gonna freak out!"

"What about us?" He exclaimed, pulling the car into my driveway. He turned back to face me, expressionless. "We were scared. We were freaked out too!"

"I'm fine."

"I thought you were having a heart attack," he said as he returned his attention to the steering wheel. "I thought you were dying."

There was a brief silence. Mei's eyes glanced towards me and then back towards my house.

I shook my head and muttured, "Whatever. Thanks."

"Apollo, I need to tell you your—"

I jumped out of the car before Lee could finish his thought.

I shut the door and walked towards the front door. There was a sharp pain in the middle of my chest. I didn't like fighting with Lee, but something inside me couldn't help but get angry at him for this.

It was always like this nowadays. I was always looking for something to be upset about.

I called, "Mom," as I opened the door. "Your hijo is home early."

"Wow, what a big man."

My head snapped towards the voice that was certainly not my mother's.

I made my way towards the kitchen where I had heard the voice, and there he was. My older brother, Diego, had come back home. I had no clue where he had gone, but Mom acted as if he was gone forever. She cried for days, hoping he would come back.

He called once in a while to check in, but he never intended to come back. My mom liked to think that he was out making his own map of the world. She would say, "Diego's always wanted the world to be his own, and to do things on his terms. I guess it was about time he finally did it." That's how she kept herself sane.

"Well, where's my hug?" Diego asked. He had grown his hair out, and slicked it back in a neat and clean way. He looked like our dad. The same long nose, the same hazel eyes, the same toothy smile. He was a carbon copy.

"W-what are you doing here?" I asked.

"Stopping by," he said. "Mom keeps telling me to come by."

He tightly squeezed my bicep and laughed when he realized what my costume was.