My Brothers

Aaron sat in a restaurant having a hamburger. He had sent his location address to Lara since she had asked, and since there were no science books in this area, he downloaded a book about Marie Curie.

"Some women are worth respecting," he muttered after discovering that she had won two Nobel Prizes. "One day I will win that," he thought.

Then he heard a camera click and looked ahead to see Lara, who had just taken a picture of him. "Did you just take a picture of me?" he frowned, and she stared at the picture.

"I was wondering if a camera can capture your image, see? You look handsome with filters," she mocked before she sat facing him, and Tyler joined them.

"Tyler got you clothe; we dropped them at home before coming here. And I thought you must be enjoying yourself, but you are reading a book on your phone, so fun," she said sarcastically.

"Can you stop talking?" Tyler whispered, and she pouted. Aaron took a bite while ignoring them.

"Aaron, do you know what I discovered just now?" Tyler leaned forward and whispered.

"There are so many hoods here."

Aaron nodded. He also discovered that when he saw Tony and his gang playing chess, "We don't stick our nose where it doesn't belong."

"I will order; do you also want a hamburger?" Lara asked Tyler, who nodded, "Can you get me a soda?" Aaron asked, and she raised a brow. "Can I?"

Then she walked to the workers on the shelf. A man stood there with his back facing her, but he had an apron. "Excuse me, can I get three hamburgers, one soda, one espresso... well, one espresso and two sodas?"

"On it," the guy turned and faced her; she bit her lip nervously. The guy smiled at her. "Is that all you need?"

"Umm, that will be all."

"See that table there? That's me."

"I will bring your orders then," he said, and she nodded before joining the others.

"I don't think we should trust anyone from this community." Tyler was talking to Aaron before Lara joined them. "Why is your cheek so red?"

"It is?" She touched her face, which had become hot. "Well…"

"Nevermind" 

"Oh, Aaron, I discovered why humans cannot breathe underwater," Lara exclaimed excitedly.

"Because humans are not Oste, Ostari..."

"Osteichthyes?" Aaron butted in, and she nodded. "Yes, that's the word."

"Wrong"

"It's true, fish can breathe underwater, but to what scientific class do they belong? Osteich... whatever," she supported her point, and Aaron clicked his tongue. There was only one thought in his mind: "At least she knows a fish scientific class."

"Osteichthyes are not the only ones who breathe underwater, so your point is invalid, but since you shocked me by giving something meaningful, I will tell you what the priest wanted from us." 

"Great," she said with a huge smile. All her research didn't go to waste.

"He wants us to give our souls to his God."

"Well, that's easy. Where do we deposit it?" Tyler joked when they both stared at him with a look that said, "Really? Really, Tyler?"

"I understand that, but we live by sinning. I wish a day would come when I wouldn't have to sin anymore," Lara pouted.

Then the server brought three hamburgers and placed one in front of each of them. Lara frowned and took the hamburger in front of Aaron. "I ordered three, two for me." 

"Oh, sorry about that," the server apologized and dropped the two sodas and one espresso. "The two sodas are yours as well?" 

"I am not that greedy," she chuckled, and she handed one to Aaron.

"I am sure it's your first time coming to this restaurant. I just wanted to let you know that we do home delivery. Whenever you need to order from home, then log in to our website and place an order," he explained, and Tyler stared at him.

"What's the name of the website? And what language was used to build the website?"

The guy got confused and stared at Aaron, who was in deep thought: "It's a restaurant website, probably angular or bootstrap for the front end. Am I correct?" Aaron replied, and Tyler scoffed.

"There are many other front-end languages; I challenge you to name the back-ends."

"PHP, Python, Javascript, Ruby…"

"Guys, manners, please," Lara chimed in. She noticed the confused look on the server's face, and she was confused as well. Why did Aaron keep mentioning girl's name? "And who is Ruby?" she scoffed.

"I am just a server," the guy said, and they nodded in understanding.

"I am Lara; these are my brothers. Aaron and Tyler."

They both stared at her in disbelief. Brothers. They had a frown but didn't say anything.

"Nice to meet you all; I am called Lincoln."

"Lincoln?" Lara shivered in fear.

"Oh my," she gasped in disbelief. "How could he have such a name?"

"Is anything wrong?" Lincoln asked in a confused tone. He saw the exaggerated look on her face.

"You see, her ex-boyfriend's name was Lincoln," Aaron replied, and it was Lara's turn to frown at her.

"Oh, I will get back to work now. But if it makes you feel uncomfortable, then just call me the same way as my friends; they call me Jet."

Then he left, and Lara tapped the table. "Ex-boyfriend? Is that the best you got?"

Aaron hit the table as well. "Brother? Is that the best you got?"

"Ahhh," she scoffed in frustration, stood up, and used a tissue to hold her hamburger. "I am going home; I suddenly lost my appetite."

"Then why are you leaving with the food?" asked Tyler. "I hate you," she said and left.

Aaron chuckled. "Did you just chuckle at what she said?" Tyler asked in disbelief, which left Aaron confused.

"It's great we now consider her one of us," he added. Aaron picked up his soda and left the restaurant.

*

The next morning, Lara was the first to wake up, and she knocked on Aaron's door, then on Tyler's.

"It's morning; wake up. We have a long day ahead of us."

"Wake up, wake up, let's freshen up and slip into our new designer clothes," she kept knocking, but no one opened the door.

Then there was silence suddenly, and Aaron and Tyler sighed in relief before going back to bed.

*clash

They heard something break in the sitting room, and then Lara's scared voice came in: "I don't have the watch."

They jumped down from the bed and opened their bedroom doors. There stood Lara as she burst out in laughter. "That's all it took to wake you guys up," she kept laughing.

It turns out she had purposely broken glass and also caused such a scene just to wake them up. "Oh, my..." Tyler clutched his chest tightly and held on to the wall for support.

"My heart." He found it hard to breathe and sat on the floor.