The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by DC Pierson

Author:DC Pierson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780307474629
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2010-10-15T10:00:00+00:00

I get off the bus and walk back to my house, jackrabbits scattering across people’s lawns. My brother is sitting in front of my house underneath the porch light in a lawn chair. He is wearing oversized sunglasses and no shirt, drinking beer from a can with an open case at his feet.

“Hey,” I say on my way into the house.

“Beach party,” he says, “Alan and them left, though,” as though I’d asked him “What’d you do tonight?” He says: “What’d you do tonight?”

“Nothing.”

“You go over to that kid’s house?” He means Eric.

“No. Party.”

“You went to a party? Oi, ja hear that?” he says in his obnoxious Cockney thing, addressing no one in particular. “Ee went to a fook-in’ partee!”

“Yup.”

“You want a beer?”

“Uhm … sure.” I made out with a girl. I am drinking a beer with my brother on the front porch of my house. The old world I knew is dead.

He takes one out of the box and hands it to me. I open it and sit on the concrete. It’s cold. I keep forgetting to be happy about what happened earlier, but then I remember.

“Is Dad coming back tonight?”

“I dunno. He left money. You can order something if you’re hungry.”

“I ate at the thing.”

“Whose thing was it? I didn’t hear about anything.”

“Some drama kid party.”

“Oh, a fag party.”

“Fuck you. I made out with a girl.”

“Ferreals?”

“Yeah.”

“Nice! JA FUCK HER?” my brother says, and launches forward in his seat. His beer foams over and it’s awkward and I think he senses it’s not a good idea to be so completely himself in all situations. “Seriously, though. Nice. I’m through here. Top me off.”

We drink the rest of the beers. There are eight left. It’s the third time I’ve ever been drunk; the first time was a couple years ago when my brother had a Pimps and Hos party when my dad was gone and the second time was at my mom’s wedding.

“I don’t see that kid here much anymore. That kid.”

“Eric?”

“Whatever. Big fuckin’ eyes. Nerd. Yeah.”

“Yeah, mostly I go over to his house.”

“Good. You guys fuck with … Alan again, like that time? He’ll kill you. I don’t care as much.”

“Okay.”

“That’s a weird fuckin’ kid. He wanted roofies? Fuck is his deal?”

“He’s like, I dunno, an honors student and stuff.”

“That does not even begin to explain the roofies.”

“You had them.”

“You WANTED ’em.”

“It was for an experiment.”

“Fucked kind of experiment.”

“No girls involved.”

“Story of your life.”

“I kissed a girl tonight!”

“Good. Me and yer pa were startin’ ta worry.”

Crickets chirp. I kill my beer and open another one.

“What fuckin’ experiment?”

“Okay, get this: Eric can’t sleep.”

“Insomnia? Like Fight Club?”

“No, like, he can’t sleep AT ALL.” I think about trying to explain it further. Then it occurs to me I probably shouldn’t have said anything.

“The fuck?”

“Or … that’s what he tells me. I don’t know. It’s weird.”

“You’re fucking-A right it’s weird.”

“He’s like, joking I think.”

“You’re fucking-A right it’s weird.” My brother is quiet for a long time, then he says, “Huh.”

“What?”

“That’s a weird kid.”

“Yeah, he says … he says a lot of, y’know, stuff.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.