Switchverse: Part IV, or, Odd One Out
Theo has his suspicions about Audrey and Derek.
He’s been their almost-cousin since the beginning, and there’s no way to excuse the times that Audrey speaks for them both or Derek knows where Audrey is at all times. They don’t use phones or messaging systems to keep in contact and never have, they just manage it somehow.
Audrey tried to explain it, six years old and rambling, and the concept of two people feeling around inside one mind was much simpler to understand at four. As the years passed, Theo questions why and how until he confronted them about it.
So, in eighth grade, Audrey laughed it off as a child’s joke while Derek made apologetic faces at Theo and acted like he wasn’t reading his cousin’s mind.
Theo doesn’t Officially know, but it’s obvious to anyone willing to believe it’s possible.
Theo believes.
--
Getting dressed, dark hair mussed from losing his hat, Derek says, “Cel’s wondering who you’re taking to dinner with us.”
Theo raises his chin thoughtfully. “I wasn’t aware company was required.” The bed is unmade, papers and sketches of figures in motion layer over the carpet.
Derek shrugs, heavy pull across skinny shoulders. “She’s bringing Nathan.”
“Ah. Her latest non-boyfriend.” Theo straightens his cuffs, lowering his eyes while his best friend changes shirts. “I forget whether or not I’m aware of this one.”
“You’re not,” Derek says, digging around under his desk for his shoes. “Was that a no?”
“No, I’m not taking anyone to dinner.” Theo smiles. “Except you. Will you be my date tonight, Derek?”
“Sure,” he says, and then announces to the room at large, “I’m ready. She’ll be here in five minutes to pick us up, and Nathan will meet us at the place."
--
Theodore Anthony Iero’s pretty quiet, much to his dad’s despair.
Theo’s dad, Frank, tumbles around in his studio most of the day and then comes out before dinner, which is takeout because, as Theo’s mom always says, “If Frank doesn’t cook it, it doesn’t get cooked.”
So Frank sits down with new!onetry!chopsticks that are magnetized to keep food pinched together the right way and says, “Theo! Theo Theo Theodore. My blessed firstborn. Tell me about your day.”
Theo wipes his mouth with a napkin and makes sure he’s swallowed everything before he admits, “I received a perfect score on an essay I composed last week.”
And, seriously. A sophomore in high school. Frank has Concerns.
“Didja meet any cute girls?” Frank presses.
On his right, Jamia’s red-lipstick mouth purses to keep from smiling and she gives Frank a Look and he gets distracted for a second thinking about how lucky he is, because twenty years of marriage to this woman, wow.
And Theo says, “Just Cel. Audrey. Audrey Way.”
Frank giggles, and Jamia holds up a hand so she can do the same, except silently and hidden. She says, “Theo, hon. Really. We’ve met Audrey Way before. We changed the girl’s diapers.”
“I was in - really!” Frank keeps laughing. “I was in My Chem with Gee and Mikeyway, really.”
Theo shrugs and takes another bite. When he’s finished with it, he explains, “I didn’t want you to be confused.”
He’s mentioned either Audrey or Derek or both every single day for sixteen years. There’s no way they could be confused.
--
2way and Theo read the same books, borrow from each other, race through everything. Considering he’s Audrey’s little brother, he’s a reasonably critical audience for some of Theo’s more ambitious work.
Mostly they discuss characters or authors or themes, but sometimes he asks about the Band, safe in the twilight of the basement.
2way shrugs. “We’re working on it.”
“Eliza’s writing the music,” Theo says, but slight inflection recasts the sentence as a question. He’s been trying to match that trick in narration.
“I’m writing the lyrics,” 2way confirms. After a second, he shakes his head. “I mean. In theory.”
Theo waves his hand to invite sharing, but 2way reddens and refuses. “Oh.” Theo nods. “You haven’t written anything besides, ‘Eliza is awesome’.”
“Shut up. She is awesome. And that’s not my problem.”
Theo knows that 2way has a very low tolerance for teasing, so he lets their conversation lapse into silence, waits for 2way’s mood to dissipate. Then, he prompts, “Why are you dissatisfied with your lyrics.”
2way clicks a few things on his vidscreen and a message arrives for Theo, documents attached. “I just. I’m immature. I can’t talk about broken hearts or terrible sadness. I’m inexperienced.”
Theo scrolls through them, more like poems than songs. “Write about wistfully longing for childhood,” he suggests, head bent. “How bittersweet crushes tend to be. Unrequited love.”
2way grins ruefully. “Nothing rhymes with awesome. Except opossum.”
“Careful,” Theo scolds. “You’re in danger of wooing me already.”
--
Theo observes the world. Sometimes he asks himself a question, and sometimes he invents an answer. He notices details, and then finds words to describe them, and then writes it down.
At some point, he’s stopped trying to explain all of that, and shortened it to, “I write.”
More often than not, Audrey’s standing next to him to finish the sentence with, “Fiction. Short stories.”
And, yes, Theo spends time in his own mind, walking different paths and exploring possibilities. Perhaps he is less than social.
To be fair, his two best friends spend just as much time in their own mind, where Theo can’t follow.