Chapter 9 – We Formulated an Evil Plan

The rest of the night went on like a blur. Reed and Chuck were laughing. I was laughing too, but I didn’t know why. Nathan was cursing under his breath while he slung my arm over his shoulder and dragged me to Dad’s car. The blond brothers were arguing how to get home since they didn’t have a ride.

I said, “Hop in. We’ll just scrunch in together,” while chuckling groggily before my head lolled to the side.

They kept laughing. Something about sardines. I didn’t get the joke but laughed anyway. Nathan called us morons and we laughed about that too. As it turned out, drinking too much transformed me into a huge lump of snickering nonsense.

“It’s in the genes, Nate. In the genes,” I moaned.

In the end, we ended up walking home, staggering all the way, singing “I’m bruised and scarred! Save me from this broken heart. All my love will slowly fade and fall apart.”

The Ferguson brothers sung louder. Good thing the next house was still about a hundred yards away or there’d be a chance that we’d spend the night in an all expense paid five-star prison suite.

“Someone please, sing this lovesick melody. Call my name if you’re afraid, I’m just a kiss away.”

As we passed by EMC park, I paused to lean on a tree and stared at the spot where I first saw Sarah. Suddenly, all I wanted was to run to her—beg her to remember me and everything would be just as it was before she lost her memories.

“It sucks,” I groaned, barely able to keep standing. Chuck and Nathan caught me on both arms.

“Let’s go home, dude,” Chuck said, giving me a pat on the shoulder.

“No,” I argued, glowering at him through my exhausted lids. “I… I wanna see Sarah. If I tell her about us. Maybe if I tell her… she’d take me back,” I muttered squirming away from them. A stabbing pain shot from my broken arm, but I just couldn’t care about that anymore.

“Leon!” Nathan yelled at me when I kicked and thrashed. It was the first time I actually saw him being serious. “You’re drunk! D’you think she’d be jumping up and down to see you like that?”

Weakly, I slumped on the sidewalk and ran a hand over my face, swearing. “You don’t get it, Nate. You don’t get it! No wonder Elle broke up with you!” I choked, staggering up to my feet, shoving him away from me.

The next thing I knew was Nathan’s fist against my jaw. Yellow spots danced around my eyes while I staggered backwards. Cursing, I lunged tackling him to the ground. He wedged his knee under my stomach and threw me flat on the ground. Pain shot everywhere.

“Reed, I need some help here,” Chuck called his brother who was sitting half asleep on the sidewalk, seemingly oblivious of the brawl in front of him.

Reed lifted his head blearily and chuckled. “Ah, let them. They’ll get tired soon enough,” he mumbled.

“I should’ve slit your throat when I had the chance!” Nathan said through clenched teeth. Before I could get up, he was already on his feet, grabbing me on the collar of my shirt. “You bastard!” he yelled hauling me up angrily and punched me hard on the stomach. It knocked the wind out of me but I managed to stay upright. I swung my good hand at him, landing a solid hit on his face.

“Oh, yeah? Try me now!” I growled, watching him stumble back, wiping the blood from his broken lip.

We exchanged blow after blow. I couldn’t even see him anymore. My eyes were blacking out and my head felt like it’d split into two in no time. But I kept throwing punches at him while he did the same. A few times, I didn’t retaliate and let him hit me. I stumbled on the ground then scrambled up again just to be his personal punching bag and let him have his way. Guilt trip. I owe him that.

It was a touchy topic, but the breakup thing with Elle just slipped out of my mouth. I knew I shouldn’t have brought that up. That was way below the belt.

My mouth tasted of blood and bile. I spat to the sidewalk before his last strike finally knocked me down. A second later and Nathan collapsed on the ground, right beside me.

“Okay… Are you two done now?” Chuck asked warily.

All of a sudden Nathan started laughing in a rusty voice. “Elle didn’t break up with me. I did.”

Flat on my back and even though it hurt everywhere, I found myself grinning at the sky, like I just released all the apprehension that built up for the last few weeks. “Why on earth—“

“Because I’m a moron,” he cut me off. I had the feeling that he was hiding more than he was letting on but I didn’t dare probe. “I guess it really does run in the family.” We both laughed like psychos after that.

As Chuck was about to help me up, his eyes widened, muttering, “Dude!” while he handed me my glasses back. It must’ve fallen off while Nathan and I were too busy trying to kill each other. “It’s like I’ve seen you before. I just don’t remember where.”

In panic, I snatched the glasses from his hand and slammed it on my face as quick as I could. “What are you talking about? We’ve known each other for two years. Of course, you’ve seen me.” I wore a casual smile, becoming alert and sober in an instant.

“Yeah, Chuck. You’re just too bloody drunk, you start seeing things,” Nathan backed me up, dragging his feet while he approached us wearily.

As if in a daze, Chuck blinked looking not at all convinced.

“I’m pretty sure I—Wait. I got it! You look like that eye candy singer my little sister kept raving about. She has tons and tons of posters of that guy. Even made this mural thingy in one corner of her room,” he chuckled, lost in thought.

Reed waddled to me, eyes narrowing. “Come to think of it. Without the glasses, you really kind of look like him. What’s was his name? Uh, Lee—“

“You should probably go see an eye doctor or a brain check—“ Nathan began to say but I shook my head to silence him. It was no use lying to them anymore. Besides, I’d bet my life on these two anytime.

“You mean Leon Walden?” I asked, taking a deep breath before removing the nerdy glasses and my skullcap. “Because… I am him.”

* * *

Good thing Dad was still asleep when we got home. But he’d definitely wonder where his car went in the morning. I should probably remind Nathan to get it home before dawn.

We all crashed in Nathan’s room. But before that, we had to move all his stuff from the floor and shove it inside an already jam-packed cabinet. His room was just as big as mine but amazingly cluttered with blank canvases, easels, pieces of paper, sketchpads and the like. He’s such a slob, really.

As we were dragging mattresses from the guest rooms, Chuck accidentally stepped on something green and sticky. He chased us for a good half an hour or so, forcing us to smell the stuff on his foot. Reed tackled him to the floor, threw him into the bathroom, threatening to lock him up in there all night if he didn’t get rid of the monster goo off his foot.

I was beginning to have second thoughts about entrusting my life on those two.

“I still can’t believe you tricked us that easily. And for two years?” Reed mumbled as we laid flat on our backs, staring at the ceiling. Me and Nathan (but mostly Nathan) had just told the guys everything about us—our true identities, the switch, the mother issue. I’d say Nathan told them more than what was necessary.

“So that explains the cool car,” Chuck muttered right next to me. “Thought you were too nerdy for an Audi of that caliber.”

“Thanks a lot,” I replied bitterly.

He coughed hard when Reed elbowed him on the ribs. But as usual, he couldn’t help but open his mouth. “What if we just tell Nerdy that you’re Leon Walden? You’re like a superstar, man. Surely, she’d take you back faster than you can blink.”

“If it was that simple, don’t you think we’d have done that by now?” Nathan groaned from the other end of the mattress. “Nerdy’s not that kind of girl. She wouldn’t come chasing after him just because she finds out the he’s Leon Walden.”

I couldn’t agree more with my brother even if I was a bit stumped that he even tried to stick up for Sarah. Usually, he’d just throw snide comments and annoy us to death. But now, I couldn’t say. Maybe something had changed.

To say the least, Sarah was more than complicated. I never knew what went on inside her head. She rarely voiced out what she wanted. And lots of times, I couldn’t figure out what she really meant whenever she said something.

“Or we could just make her remember,” Reed suggested. “In the movies, when the girl gets the amnesia and accidentally bangs her head hard for the second time, the memories will come back. Why don’t we do that?”

Both Nathan and I grunted at the stupidity of his idea. Things like that didn’t really happen in real life and even if we tried, we might end up killing Sarah in the process.

“You know, like set up some event that’s really important to her. That way, her memories might come back,” he added, chuckling ruefully.

 “That’s childish, bro.” Chuck snorted. “I know. Why don’t we just do a replay of how you two met? That might help her remember.”

“Dude! That’s what I just said!” Reed groused, sounding really exasperated. And I thought my brother was annoying.

“I’m such a genius,” Chuck grinned, seemingly too pleased with himself.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Nathan muttered dryly.

“Yeah…” I mumbled broodingly. “So darn stupid, it just might work.”

My brother rumbled. “Oh, sure. It will absolutely work. Please remind me to buy you blokes straitjackets for your birthday presents, yes?”

I ignored him. “Those in favor, raise your right hand.”

Chuck and Reed exchanged crazy looks with each other before raising two left feet. “We’re in,” they said.

“How very surprising,” muttered Nathan in his normally sarcastic British tone. “Fantastic. I’m stuck with madcaps.”

“We’re really bored. And we got nothing decent to do anyway,” Reed shrugged.

“And not to mention, have lots of free time,” Chuck agreed. “So what do we do?” he asked me.

I rubbed my chin and stared at the ceiling for a while, excitement welling up in my chest. “I have an idea. But it’ll need a lot of strategic planning and precision. We might lose our faces, get killed in the process or worse, get arrested.”

“Pshh… So what? Precision is my middle name, bro,” he replied, almost skipping.

Right next to Reed, Nathan scooted over like he just received a hundred volts of electrocution. “Forget what I said. Count me in.” A crooked grin spread on his face. Something’s really not right about him.

Nodding, I ran the plan over and over again in my head, seeing it coming together like a really intricate jigsaw puzzle. “But first, we’ll need to break into the school grounds. And a car.”

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So what is this plan? Will upload after 20 votes and let's see XD Now that all the drama has been a thing of the past, what hilarious feats would our Leon Walden do for the girl of his dreams? Oh, and a picture of Chuck and the song in this chapter--> to the right.                   ~love and cookies and candy clouds, SHIM