“Nelu please come down stairs.” Peter called. I put down the book I was reading. It was The Hobbit by Tolkien. When I got down stairs Nelly was already seated on the couch. I sat on the one adjacent to my twin. “The ‘help’ is arriving tonight so please make sure the house is empty.”

“Where are we putting them?” Nelly asked looking up from his phone for a second. I swore he was only off it when his friends were around him. He was even on it in class.

“There is a room behind the game room. It has been set up for that specifically.”

“If it’s tonight then I’m going to be out with some friends, so I won’t be able help if you need any.” Nelly stood up to leave the room. He went upstairs and got a jacket before walking out the door. “See you in a couple of hours.”

“Are you going to be here?” Peter asked, clearly not keeping his hopes up.

“Yeah, you can call me when the truck arrives.” I said getting up to go back to my room. When I get to my room I pull out my institute phone. I scrolled through the numbers until I found the one I was looking for.

“This is Sheldon.” A soft voice answered the phone. Sheldon was my best friend at the institution, other than my brother obviously. He was a soft spoken seventeen year old who knew how to poison someone seven ways from Sunday.

“Hey Donny, it’s Nelu.”

“You sound so sad my fellow sheep. What’s up?”

“Well, Nelly is making friends with the whole world again.” Sheldon knew how my brother got when he was given attention from people his age. He blocked out the world and followed the attention givers.

“Well why don’t you give him a mixture of the little poison I made you?” Sheldon seemed to have his attention somewhere else, but that was not strange with him. He was always cooking up some new type of poison with various side effects. One of his other poisons was supposed to make a person pass out and did just that, after it turned them green.

“It kinda makes me feel bad you know…” The potion he was talking about was something I had given Nelly before. It was supposed to make him sick, but the side effect was that he ended up coughing up blood and it was contagious to everyone but me. It wasn’t fatal and was undetectable.

“Well that will keep him away from his friends for a while.”

“But I feel like I’m not letting him enjoy his life. Like I’m being an over bearing boyfriend.” I sighed loudly. “I don’t want to be an overbearing boyfriend.”

“I know you don’t.” Sheldon stopped what he was doing for a split second. “Why don’t you focus on your friends and leave him to enjoy his life for a while. I’m sure he will begin to miss you as much as you miss him.”

“I hope you are right. Thanks for the advice.” I hung up and went down stairs to prepare a snack for myself. As I placed the last slice of cheese the top of my sandwich the weapons truck arrived. “Peter, are you here?”

I got no response from my pretend dad. He was probably either out of the house or sleeping. It was a surprise that it only took him a few minutes to fall fast asleep. I went to meet the workers of the institution.

“You must be one of the twins.” The head supervisor held out his hand to me.

“Nelu. You can bring everything in and I will show you where to put them.” I lead them in the house to the secret room behind the shelf in the game room and they started setting everything down where I told them to. Once they were done they closed the door behind them and left. Some of the weapons were for me while others are for Nelly. Peter wasn’t really a weapon guy.

Nelly’s side was the hand-to-hand combat weapons like knives, daggers and the odd katana, while my side had long range weapons like pistols, assault rifles and a few revolvers. Revolvers weren’t my favourite type of gun but they got the job done sometimes. I surveyed the room a little longer before switching off the light and locking it up.

My phone’s vibrations almost caught me off guard. It was Nelly.

Nell: Hey, I’m going to be home in a few please get me some snacks out of the pantry. 

Lu: Why should I? U_U

Nell: Please Lu! 

Lu: FINE!

Nell: You are a life saver.

Lu: Oh f### you... (>_<#)

Nell: HaHaHa. I can’t believe you hashed out the swear words on your own.

*Lu has gone offline*

Sometimes I wondered why I ever did anything for my brother. I went to the pantry and pulled out as much snacks as my arms could carry and dumped them in their respective cupboards. As a last resort I added a drop of Sheldon’s ‘potion’ to Nelly’s cookies. The potion would only work on him if ingested and affect other people once Nelly got sick.

I half wished he didn’t eat those cookies.

***

“Morning, Peter.” I said as I walked in to the kitchen.

“Hello, Nelu. Sleep well?” Peter was reading the newspaper and drinking orange juice like a typical dad.

“As best as I could have.”

“Is Nelly here?”

“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen him since he left before the truck arrived.”

“Morning family.” Nelly waltzed in as if we were the perfect family, which meant that we weren’t alone in the house.

“Good morning.” Michelle had slowly walked into the kitchen. She seemed different from the girl I had met on my first day at school, more reserved.

“What are we having for breakfast? I’m starving.” Nelly threw open the fridge.

“I can make you pancakes if you want?” I offered getting up from my place at the kitchen island.

“You don’t have to, Lu.”

“Nah, you have a guest so it’s the least I can do.” I put up my hand to stop any further objections, and then turned to Michelle. “Do chocolate chip pancakes sound nice?”

“Yeah, thanks.” She nodded her head. Nelly and Michelle went upstairs to brush their teeth as I got the pancakes ready. I made everything from scratch as I had a small feeling of jealousy and wanted to show off my culinary skills. When breakfast was ready Peter had already set the table. He placed a jug of orange juice on the table along with syrup, honey, chocolate sauce, sugar and an assortment of chopped fruits. Everything was ready by the time Michelle and Nelly were back down stairs.

“This is really good, Nelu!” Michelle had only taken one bite of the pancakes. Nelly and Peter both nodded in agreement. “Who taught you how to cook?”

“I taught myself.” I said slowly. Nelly and Peter both looked at me, but I just shrugged. I continued to talk to Michelle. “You should add fruits; they make it taste so much better.”

“Really?” Michelle popped a strawberry into her mouth.

***

“Hey, Nelu. Can you come to my room please?” I had just gotten out of the shower. Michelle had left an hour ago, saying that she had to meet someone.

I walked to Nelly’s room and opened the door to find my brother coughing up blood on the floor.

“I think I might be sick again.” I called the house maid to bring a bucket and something to clean up the blood.

“You could have coughed up your blood in the bathroom.” I said to Nelly as I tried to get the blood out of the carpet.

“I think we might have to burn down the house when we leave.” Nelly said laughing. I gave up on the stain and pulled myself up on to his bed.

“If you are sick the same way as last time, then we have to make sure that Michelle is also okay.” I stood up. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Oh, fuck you.” Nelly rolled his eyes.