boisdemoon

HARLOWE

“I don’t get it,” Vitt says, staring at the purple ukulele in his hands like he’s never seen it before.

“Weird, huh?” I say with a shrug. “You’re probably just tired.”

Twelve years later, I’ve lost count of all the things I’ve stolen from others. Ability to knit from Grandpa, to master pretty much any subject at school from my teachers, to ride a motorcycle from my ex-boyfriend Edan, to tap dance from that annoying street performer in Halifax, to speak Russian, Spanish, Japanese… 

“It’s probably time you leave,” I say, standing up from the bed. “It’s late.”

Jaden walks past my bedroom door and glances at us just as I’m playing a song I’ve never even heard before on my new, yellow ukulele. He frowns.

“Harlowe,” he says with the beginning of a lecture I know too well in his tone. “What have you done?”

I smile. “Oh, Vitt taught me how to play the ukulele. Wasn’t it nice of him?”

Vitt is still staring at the instrument in his hands, mouth open, eyes panicked.

“Yeah?” Jaden says, crossing his arms and taking a step forward to lean in my doorway. He looks at Vitt. “Why don’t you play something, man?”

“Um, well, it’s weird, I—” Vitt begins but my brother interrupts him.

“Come on, I know you can play the ukulele. I just know it.”

And just like that Vitt can.

It’s something that we learned just a couple of months after we realized I could steal abilities from others. My brother’s Craft is the polar opposite. He can give abilities just by uttering the words: you can do it. My parents are so annoyingly proud of him for that. He gets praised for using the powers he was born with, while I get lectured every time I so much as mention mine. But at least it means I can steal from others guilt-free because he’ll clean up after my mess, the way he did for many of my teachers to ensure they wouldn’t get fired.

So, hurray. Jaden saves the day again and Vitt can play the ukulele, but of course not as well as with the eight years of practice I just stole from him.

“Anyway,” I say mid-song. “Vitt was just leaving.”

“No, come on, babe,” he says, his smile back on. “Let’s play a couple songs together.”

The doorbell rings and a second later I hear Norma’s voice from downstairs. “Yo, Lowe! You ready to go?”

Vitt stands up from my bed so fast the pale blue comforter slides to the floor. “I thought it was just you and me, tonight.”

“Oh, my Goddess, I forgot,” I lie as my brother rolls his eyes. “I promised Norm I’d go to that silly fair with her. She really really wants to go and…” I lower my voice. “…her date bailed on her.”

“Poor Norma,” Vitt whispers.

“Yeah, but first day of the Redmarsh Festivities should cheer her up.”

Today is August 30^th, exactly one month before Redmarsh Day, our town’s birthday, so the next weeks are going to be filled with random events and silly traditions that are sort of boring, but they always make the first month of school even more of a joke—which is perfect for bailing whenever I feel like it.

Norm appears next to my brother in the doorway. She’s almost two heads smaller than Jaden, who must’ve grown a whole foot in the last couple of months, a change that makes him disproportionately tall and clumsy.

“Oh, cool. Everyone’s here.” Norm glares at me. “You could’ve told me you already had plans. I would’ve worked on my book instead of going to that stupid fair.”

Now I’m the one to glare at her. There goes my cover.

“Babe, I’d love to go to the fair,” Vitt says, miraculously—or voluntarily—oblivious.

Norm’s glare turns into a confused expression. We’ve been friends for so long I know exactly what that look means: Thought you were breaking up with the guy?

“Well, if Vittorio is going, I’m going, too,” Jaden says, and I swear he’s actually swelling up his chest.

I sigh. What am I going to do with that overprotective goofy brother of mine? Ever since he learned Vitt is nineteen, barely a year older than him, Jaden feels the need to third-wheel all our outings. Fun.

“Okay, cool,” Norm says, smiling at Jaden.

“Ew,” I say, glancing back and forth between the two of them.

“What?” they hurry to say in unison.

Norma twirls one of her long braids and I internally smirk. Then I sigh the most dramatic sigh of my life, which is saying a lot. I’m not known for my subtle charisma.

“Here’s what,” I say. “Brainwashed by fucked-up gender norms, Jaden thinks it’s his duty as a male to cock-block his sister’s entire social life. I mean, I’d be willing to bet my stellar ability to flirt that if I were a boy, his instinct would’ve been to slap me in the back and hand me a couple of condoms, but sure, let’s all go to the fair,” I deadpan in almost one breath.

“Whoa, I just thought I’d get to know the guy you’re dating,” Jaden says, hands in the air. “How is that wrong?”

I make a sound that’s between disbelief and disgust.

“Come on, Lowe,” Norm says with an eye-roll. “I know you’re secretly happy that Jaden just volunteered to drive us there and back.” She grins at my brother. “Right, DD?”

He smiles back. “That’d be my pleasure.”

“Then let’s go to the fair,” Norm exclaims, clapping her hands.

I can’t help smiling at Norma, who always finds a way to turn a situation in our favor. I wink at her but then steel my features, unwilling to let the others know how nervous and excited I am about tonight.

“Yay,” I say with as much enthusiasm as a bot as I lead the way downstairs.

“Fairs are so romantic, babe,” Vitt says, carrying his ukulele.

“Dude, read the room,” I say over my shoulder. “It just became a group thing. Romantic would be pretty creepy and incestuous at this point.”

Vitt just laughs, ever the positiveness guru that annoyed the hell out of me since day two. “I just love fairs,” he says when Norm opens the front door. “Don’t you?”

They both step out onto the porch, but as I grab a leather jacket on the way, Jaden pulls me back inside. “Why the fair?” he asks, cautious.

“Because my boyfriend loves them?” I reply, innocently batting my eyelashes.

Jaden looks over his shoulder to make sure the others aren’t listening. Norm seems to be recounting that time she visited a fair at ten years old when a clown in giant heels lifted her off the ground and she semi-shat herself. Vitt is laughing. Norm is cursing a lot and wishing clowns would go extinct.

Jaden whispers to me, “Please tell me you’re not planning another grand theft in public? Remember what happened to that poor tightrope dancer.”

“Oh, my Goddess, Jaden, are you going to remind me of that my whole life? I was eight. I didn’t know how to control this as well as I can now.” I put my jacket on and slide my hands under my hair to let my curls free.

“Harlowe. Please. No stealing. Promise?”

I sigh, dragging him outside with me and locking the front door behind us.

Because he loves to squeeze the guilt out of me every chance he gets, he adds, “Mom and Dad are going through enough as it is. They don’t need to worry about us on top of it all.” He glances at the others to make sure they aren’t listening on us, but they’re already by Jaden’s car, now debating Stephen King’s clown. “Just not tonight. Maybe this dinner will finally make things better.”

Goddess, he’s naïve.

“It’s a dinner, not a couple’s retreat.”

“Just not tonight. Come on, promise me.”

“Fine, I promise.”

Jaden, forever the care bear, hugs me.

“Thank you,” he says. He pulls back to look into my eyes with a genuine smile.

“No problem.” I turn to meet the others.

What I don’t say is that a few months ago, I stole our father’s ability to lie.

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Read chapter 3 here.

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