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Chapter Seven

Lukas James

"..and during Drama today, I was assigned to be the director of the school's play for Romeo and Juliet!"

I picked at my mashed potatoes, smearing it across the plate with my spoon. Lyra continued ranting about her day at school to Mom and Dad, excitement evident in her emerald eyes as our parents listened carefully. My fraternal twin sister, Lyra, was the successful one out of the two of us. She continued attending high school, and I had dropped out in junior year to pursue my Youtube channel. Rachel, our older sister, was four years older than us, being 21 years old and attending college, though she remained sheltered in our household.

"That's great, sweetie," Mom said happily towards the bubble of a girl. She turned to me with an equally bright smile. "How was your day, Lukas?"

"I made a friend," I mumbled quietly, barely whispering, "on this new game I found. She's pretty cool."

"She?" Rachel repeated from her seat beside Dad, slightly surprised.

Dad perked up suddenly from her voice, turning to look at me. "She?" He echoed in a much louder voice.

"SHE?!" Mom and Lyra exclaimed in sync, their eyes sparkling.

I sat up straight, putting my hands up in defense. "Woah, woah, woah! Calm down!" I said loudly, confused and slightly irked. "What's there to be so surprised by? It's just a girl!"

"Yeah," Lyra said, pointing her fork at me, "and also the first human contact out of this family you've had in the past two weeks!" She smiled softly with a rushing blush on her face. "So! What's she like?"

"Tell us everything you know about her!" Mom said excitedly.

Dad turned to his wife, just as confused as I was. "Olivia.." he said, making her turn to look at him. "Don't you think our son deserves some sort of privacy with this..?"

Immediately, the child-like persona in our mother disappeared. She nodded, crossing her arms as her brows furrowed. "Right, right. Of course."

"Mom!" Lyra whined, puffing her cheeks out in annoyance. "You're supposed to have my back!"

Rachel stood up abruptly and shouted, "QUIET!" Everyone's heads turned to her, and she glowered down on us. "I suggest we let Lukas, the literal victim in this case, choose whether he wants to tell us or not."

I felt the four pairs of eyes on me, sighing. Guess I have no choice then. I stared down at my plate, dragging my spoon on the plate. "Her name is Meredith. Even though her name is so seemingly innocent, she's quite a girl." I smiled slightly just by the thought of remembering her laugh. "Her voice is.. enchanting. I don't mean to be so cliché, but it's kinda true. We're the same age, and from looking at her profile settings, she lives in the United States as well." I stared off into space, trying to form a face from the voice in my head. The corners of my mouth perked up. "If you heard her, she's not what you would expect from a girl who sounds innocent. She's different, and I like that."

"YOU JUST SMILED!" Lyra yelled out, her eyes widening with a sparkle. Her gaze shifted to Rachel, who was startled by my rant about a girl. "OUR BROTHER, THE MOST EMO PERSON IN THE WORLD, IS SMILING ABOUT A GIRL!"

"Oh yeah, sure. Go ahead and let the whole world hear," I said in a sarcastic tone.

Mom smiled gently from across the table, and I looked at her. "She sounds like a wonderful girl."

"Agreed," Dad replied, grabbing Mom's breadstick while she wasn't looking. Biting into it, he said, "So she's your first friend now?"

"She's not my first friend, Dad," I responded, shoving a spoonful of food into my mouth. "I had a friend in elementary."

"That was ten years ago," Rachel remarked.

"Your last relationship was ten years ago," I shot back.

Rachel blushed furiously at my retort. "I was a stupid child back then! We did stupid things as children, so don't judge me based off of that stupid past memory!" She crossed her arms, flustered by her own words as she shook her head. "W-We're just friends now. There's nothing to that that needs to change."

"More like lovers.." Lyra muttered.

"LYRA!" Rachel squeaked.

I snickered, "She's not wrong."

Rachel turned to me, blushing even more. "LUKAS!"

Along with Lyra, I laughed at her embarrassment, letting our parents ponder in confusion at Rachel's unknown love life.

Though on the outside we seemed like any normal family, normal was far from the truth. Mom and Dad has something of technical brains, both sharing one half of a beta brain that was supposed to help humanity evolve with robotics. Because of this, Rachel, their first daughter, had some problems with her brain. Doctors said it was her emotions that would be affected, but he said there wouldn't be much of a difference and she would be fine.

Because of that, I was expected to be successful, only for that to relinquish after I dropped out of school. That had disappointed my mother for a month or two, but Dad managed to help her understand what I wanted to achieve with my YouTube channel. So, again, the success idea went onto Lyra, the youngest of us three. She was, as always, the successful sibling.

Lyra was the embodiment of our mother, always bright and smiling and thinking of creative ideas. Rachel was a logical person, just as our father was, so she wasn't as imaginative, but her emotional state was in a mess.

As for me, I had almost no relations with my parents, though they claimed I reminded them of their younger selves. I was always staring off, too busy thinking of ways to avoid others, too hurt by my own actions to do anything productive. I holed myself into my room. As for now, I found myself being like my mother's older brother, Uncle Sam. I had to admit, I looked like him, except for the fact that my eyes were blue instead of green.

So, you could say that we were like a spectrum. Lyra was on the brightest side, Rachel was in the middle, and I stayed in my own dark realm.