#itzae

He sighed, as his hands turned the cold and fragile doorknob.

Andrew stepped back into their, somehow, Home.

“Hey-” 

“Hey Andrew!” 

Ashley’s voice greeted him, and his anxiety finally died down.

Andrew hated to admit it, but finally seeing his sister’s bright pink eyes, made him feel secure.

Andrew always hated having to part with her, because he always ended up missing her the second she was out of his gaze.

“‘Sup Andrew.” 

Oh

That was right.

There was another person living with them now.

“I hate that I can tell exactly what you were thinking just now,” Itzae said.

Itzae was sitting on his sister’s left, her knees tightly pressed together, and her lips furrowed into a wobbly line. Her arms were crossed in a self-soothing hug.

“Bold assumption to make” Andrew said “Why do you look so scared today? Ashley, what did you do?”

Ashley gasped dramatically, her arms raising to her sides “Why always me!? She’s the freak here!”

“How am I more of a freak than you?” 

“You are both the freak here.”

“You are a freak too!”

“Augh! Itzae! Andrew! Focus!” Ashley slammed her hands down, making a loud hollow sound against their cheap sofa “We are all freaks” Ashley said, her face spreading into a wide grin “But that's okay! Because we are all here together.”

Andrew and Itzae shared a look. 

Beneath her layers of bandages, Itzae still had those red scars around her wrist, from way back then, when Ashley and him had promptly kidnapped her, locked her up in their apartment, handcuffed her, and chained her to their radiator.

Memories.

They all understood Ashley's implicit message of ‘We are all here together. And there’s absolutely nothing any of us can do about it.’

“So, what do you want us to do this time, Ashley?” Andrew said.

“Well” Ashley threw both of her arms over Itzae’s shoulders, and to Itzae's credit, she didn't even flinch, even though Ashley must have hit her a thousand times before “Our little jailbait friend here-”

“Hey!” Itzae turned to Ashley “You are still going on with the jailbait stuff!?”

“You really should tell me how old you are sometime” Andrew said deadpan. 

“I will!” Itzae avoided his gaze “...Someday.”

“Someday.”

He absentmindedly wondered if he should be more worried about that. (Or feel some sort of guilt?)

“And!” Ashley reached one arm over to him too, now holding the both of them in an oddly close position “We came up with something for us to do together!”

“And what is that, Ashley?” Andrew could already feel a headache crawling onto him.

Right after, Ashley stood up in the middle of the room, she took a power stance, and shot both her arms into the sky.

“We are gonna have a date! A house date!”

“All of us?” Andrew looked at Itzae, and Itzae looked at the floor, with her face bright red.

“All of us,” Ashley declared.

“...Okay?”

“Be more excited!” Ashley screamed first at him, and then at Itzae “It! Help me set up the thing!”

“On it” Itzae saluted like she was in the navy, dutifully marching into their kitchen.

Andrew heard something being ripped open and thrown into their microwave.

Similarly, Ashley went into the kitchen. She came out with a pay, and a huge knife. 

Decorated with a big red heart in the middle, the pastry seemed to have cooled down a century ago. 

“We put our blood in the strawberry jam!” Ashley said, her eyes closed as she smiled. She looked like a very proud child.

“When did we get to the point, in which that doesn't surprise me anymore?”

“Probably around the fifth murder + dinner combination.”

“Don't remind me.” 

Ashley placed the pay on top of their table. 

That old thing was seconds away from giving up, the legs were buckled and the wood was chipped, but the tiny table still did its job.

“Yummy!” Ashley passed her finger through the red heart, quickly licking it off her hand.

“You don't even like strawberries” Andrew was sure he knew all the things his sister liked. 

“No! But I like blood” Ashley grinned like a cat “Specially when it isn't my own blood, right, It?”

Their microwave made a way too loud beep beep noise, and Itzae came out of their kitchen with a drowned-in-popcorn plate in hands.

“Really? Popcorn and pie?” Andrew almost felt a little impressed, at whatever their train of thought must be like, but like hell if he was going to let them know that.

“And that’s not all” Ashley sat on the couch, purposely taking as much space on it as she could “Show him what you bought us, It.”

“I didn't know, okay!?”

Itzae left the plate beside the pay, the plastic made a thump noise against the wood. 

Andrew always felt like Itzae should have been more offended over being called a Thing, but she never was, so who was he to tell her off.

Ashley laughed “Now you are getting embarrassed. That’s embarrassing, but going to school covered in hickeys and cuts isn't?”

“Shut up!”

“Just give him his thing already” Ashley rolled her eyes.

“Fine, fine” Itzae rolled her own eyes in response. 

But below that, Andrew could see the red getting from Itzae's neck to her ears.

She stiffly walked towards their fridge, the damned thing was always buzzing, and its lights were constantly flickering. 

In his most irrational moments, Andrew was sure the thing was possessed by the original owner, the original owner who he and his sister had killed, eaten, and robbed, in order to get this apartment.

Details. 

Itzae opened it in a harsh motion, and for a second, Andrew was sure the fridge’s door was going to come undone. He would not know how to cope with that. 

Andrew looked at her skinny arms as she pulled something out of it.

“Here you go. Laugh at me now if you want to, you duo of asshole siblings.”

Itzae presented them with three chocolate lollipops, in the form of huge hearts. It was easy to tell which one was for who, hers was white, Ashley's was pink, and his was green.

Fitting.

“Really. How old are you?”

“Kill yourself, Andrew!” Itzae screamed, she let go of his and Ashley's lollipops, and they fell loudly onto the floor.

“Hey! Only I get to tell my brother to kill himself!” Ashley pushed Itzae “And don't waste food, dumbass!” Ashley screamed even louder. 

She kneeled on the floor to carefully pick up the lollipops.

“You make me feel so loved, Ashley.”

It wasn't even a lie, really.

“I know, I'm the best.”

“Are we actually gonna eat that, Ashley?” Andrew was growing to despise eating.

“Fifty second rule, don't be a bitch” Ashley handed him his lollipop, and thankfully, it didn't look completely covered in dust, yet.

“Augh! I did it for love! You all suck!” Itzae sat on the couch with her arms crossed.

“Yeah, yeah, you are all about my brother’s dick. We know.”

“It’s not…just that…”

Ashley offhandedly dismissed her “But now! For the best part!” 

Ashley stood up, she ran to their shelf, and unearthed something from behind all the grim and dust.

Andrew automatically said “I don't like that you can hide things there.”

“You haven't even see- Whatever!” Ashley excitedly turned around and showed him, what was effectively, a mountain of rented DVD Cassettes.

“Aren't I the best?” Ashley said, excitedly going up and down on her tippy toes “I got us only the best! Aren't you going to praise me, Andrew?”

“Of course, of course” Andrew placed his open palm right on top of his heart “Nobody rents videotapes better than you! Nobody has a more morbid, and pedestrian taste in movies than you do. Truly, I do not have the most minimal idea where any of us would be without you, My Ashley.”

Ashley grinned, gentle giggles escaping her lips. She stood tall and proud, taking in Andrew's every word.

“My Andrew, I know, I know” Ashley said, batting her hand, her eyes closed, absorbing the praise “Now, go put them on.”

“I have to be complicit in this consumption of vapid filmographic garbage.”

“Yes.” She shoved the pile of movies into his hands “Do it.” 

Next thing: She allowed herself to free fall on their couch. Itzae placed her hand on top of Ashley's without much forethought.

“The state of mass media” Andrew dramatically said, but he did as he was told, surprising absolutely no one.  

He pressed play on the movie, and they sat side by side. Ashley in between him and Itzae, her skin was always so cold, but it never bothered him.

They were two minutes in, and there was already some naked actress getting axed down on screen.

“The garbage you watch” Andrew placed his arm on the sofa’s armrest, using his left hand to support his head.

He was already bored, and yet, he knew there was nowhere else in the world he would prefer to be. 

“You two better eat this thing whole,” Ashley spoke up, while cutting herself a slice of pay “I spent  the entire afternoon baking this.”

They didn't exactly own a lot of plates, Andrew knew it, but he still didn't think that was a good enough justification, for just placing it directly on her palm, and biting at it.

“Did you spit on it too?” Andrew said. Knowing his Ashley, honestly.

But Andrew still wasn't going to get up to get them any plates, so eating with their hands it was.

“If you want me to spit on your mouth, you can just ask, Andrew” Ashley said, crumbs of pay now all over her face.

“You eat like a toddler” Andrew reached over to her “Come here.” 

And he quickly cleaned up his sister’s face.

By their side, Itzae had grabbed the knife to cut herself a slice of pay too.

She always stared at them, like she was looking into a microscope.

Ashley looked away from Andrew's eyes for a second  “Pass me that” She said pointing at the knife in Itzae's hand.

“Here you go.” Itzae handed it over, and Ashley cut Andrew his own slice.

He took a bite of it, straight from Ashley's palms. Tasting the blood on his tongue.

Andrew licked his lips “You have iron deficiency.”

“You hate everything!”

Behind them, they heard the stifling sound of Itzae's laughter. She had one arm wrapped around her waist, and her palm pressed tightly against her mouth.

But they could still hear her laughing just fine.

“Who are you laughing at, bitch?” Ashley pulled at Itzae's arm. 

Andrew did not know if Ashley was actually going to hit her or not, up until she didn't.

“Nothing, nothing” Itzae lowered her hand from her face “It’s just… an interesting way to spend San Valentine’s Days, is all.”

“Oh yeah” Ashley's gaze turned bored, her eyes half-lidded and empty, as per-usual “You were spewing all that bullshit about your home country and shit earlier.”

“You asked!” Itzae shouted offended.

“Eh?” Andrew licked the strawberry jam away from his fingers “What was she saying?”

“Some boring shit about different kinds of love they celebrate, and corny things like that.”

“If you didn't want an answer, then don't ask!” Itzae declared, before shoving half the pay into her mouth all at once.

“Ew.” “Yikes.”

“I hate the both of you.”

Ashley grinned, all fangs. She had that mean glint in her eyes she always got before pouncing on her prey.  

“In my country we call it Day of Love and Friendship. That's it, that's everything I said.”

“So what love do we have, It?”  

“Love?” Andrew grinned “We love each other now?”

“I love you guys” Itzae said, without hesitation, her huge black eyes reminded Andrew of an insect.

“...Don’t start it right now.”

Andrew knew they weren't a couple, (throuple?) and they weren't even friends. He twirled the stick of the chocolate lollipop on his fingers, it felt like those chocolate cigarettes Ashley insisted on buying him. 

Itzae pursed her lips, but didn't insist any further, instead, she shoved her fingers into the pay’s blood jam and licked it clean.

Andrew conceded “You love us as much as any hostage can love their kidnappers.”

“I love you too, why don't you give me the philosophical answers too?” Ashley whined, unwrapping her lollipop, she bit into it, little spots of pink chocolate tainting the sides of her lips now.

There was an overt dangerous edge to it all “You already know why, Ashley.”

“Why do you need to tell women what they are feeling all the time, Andrew?” Ashley mockingly poked her tongue at him.

Andrew rolled his eyes, he took a bite out of his green chocolate, and they watched on.

Ashley idly commented on the bad practical effects, and how the blood looked ‘so cheap’ meanwhile, Itzae looked like a dead fish halfway through the first movie.

Andrew knew better than to start criticizing it, because once he started, it was like an uncontrollable fountain of words leaking out of his mouth.

“Move. I wanna get comfortable” Ashley, without taking her eyes away from the screen, said, to neither one of them in particular.

Both, Itzae and Andrew moved a little, trying to squirm away, like there was any space left in their tiny couch.

Ashley yawned softly, she always reminded Andrew of a tiny black cat.

One who wanted to hunt down everything on sight, without any regard for her own fragility.

“My spot” Ashley said, as she laid her head to rest on Andrew’s lap. 

Ashley raised her legs, her shorts receding, and showing her white thighs fully. Ashley placed them down on top of Itzae’s lap “And my other place.”

She sounded so self-satisfied.

“Her places, uh?” Itzae shot him a look.

Andrew shrugged “All hers.”

They kept watching the TV, in this pleasant shared silence.

Ashley seemed to be struggling to pay attention, her eyes starting to drift off.

Andrew found it almost adorable, the way her eyes would flutter between open and closed, how her heavy dark eyelashes obscured her view. 

Ashley nuzzled closer to his legs, and finally allowed her sleepiness to win.

“She looks adorable like this, doesn't she?” 

Itzae’s voice completely took him out of his musings. 

Andrew was acutely aware of how alone they had been their whole lives, now that there was another presence in their life. 

Everything Itzae did stung. 

He huffed out “Yeah, I wish she would stay like this forever.”

Itzae smiled softly, shaking her head from side to side “No, you don’t.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

Itzae bursted out laughing. The bright lights of the analogue TV in front of them, reflecting on her face, making striped lines of blue and red dance along her freckles and moles.

Andrew felt like they were encapsulated in time. 

At some point, his hands were entangled on Ashley’s black hair, like it was the roots he belonged to, and Andrew supposed, he did belong to.

And, at some point, later in the night, when his eyes were already starting to ache from staring at the TV in the dark, Andrew felt the weight of Itzae’s head resting against the crook of his shoulder.

And even later, when he could no longer be trusted, or held responsible for his own actions, Andrew allowed his head, to softly, barely, touch, and lean against Itzae's own.