The next morning, Lou made breakfast for his mom and brother; cinnamon rolls. It was a favourite of everyone in the house, and he thought it would help ease things when Jas found out about their mom's illness.
To his horror, Jas rolled his eyes upon hearing about their mother's cancer, and claimed all that meant was she'd finally have a more masculine frame to match her behaviour. Lou was beside himself, unable to believe those words had come from his twin's mouth. Maeve, however, wasn't surprised that her eldest held this view.
Later on, Maeve explained to Lou that while he had always been the more sensitive of her boys, Jasper had always displayed pure apathy to everyone who didn't worship him for breathing. He even delighted in the pain of others. While they were both her sons, and she loved each in her own way, she wasn't very trusting of Jas for this reason.
Lou made meatloaf for dinner while their mom went to the cancer center for her surgery. He asked Jas if he planned to visit their mom when she was in inpatient recovery after her operation, he scoffed and said, "If she'd what she should've done she wouldn't have gotten sick."
Lou asked his brother, "Do you blame me for getting Leukemia?"
Jasper shook his head 'no', replying, "Leukemia's random. Breast cancer happens when women don't breast feed their babies."
Lou blinked at Jasper repeatedly before pointing out, "there were two of us. She did the best she could, not just at the start of our life but the whole time we've been alive. She's been there for every runny nose, every fever, every sore throat, every bad dream-- even when she was in pain too, like when Dad passed."
Jas scoffed and left the table. Lou cleaned up after dinner and went next door to Tamika's. He danced with her on her front porch, forgetting about his concerns for a few moments.
He asked if she'd go to the next formal dance with him, and be his girlfriend. She readily agreed.
Lou asked Tamika to the park as a date, they talked, flirted with each other and built a sand sculpture, after which they took a few pictures late at night
Lou couldn't help but make love eyes at Tamika, to him she was the most beautiful person he knew, inside and out. She admitted she didn't like the clothes she owned, but it's what her father bought her and he'd throw away anything he didn't approve of. Lou promised her that one day she'd be the only one choosing what her wardrobe looked like, she could dress in a brown paper bag and still be breathtakingly beautiful.
Lily would always be waiting for Lou in his room when he got home from dates with Tamika, or school. She was truly his cat, and the one who made the house feel like home when his mother was absent.
Sometimes, Lou would go over to Tamika's just to get away from his brother's craziness. Jas was having several people over and they'd all end up in his room behind closed doors. From the sounds Lou would hear, he could only imagine. Not only had he hooked up with Luna again, he was still seeing Sofia, but also Lou's friend Kiyoshi became one of his brother's regulars, a guy named Wolfgang, and a redhead named Morgan.
Lou wouldn't be surprised if his brother ended up with some kind of WTD or a kid while he was still in high school... or even both.
Tamika asked how he dealt with the high traffic in his home. Lou admitted he spent a lot of his time listening to music, walking around taking pictures of their town, swimming outside, meditating or working out.
What he hadn't told Tamika, and wasn't sure he'd tell anyone, was that his need to get a thrill from stealing was becoming worse, as much as he did try to curb it, it just overwhelmed him at times. He kept returning every item he swiped, hoping that would be good enough.
