Page 57 of Gemini
He stepped back. “Weird? Not even cool? Or neat? Or interesting? Damn.”
“Maybe a little bit of all the above.”
He smiled. “Only one more place I got.”
I followed him out of the room and down the hall to an elevator like the one clubside. As we stepped in, he pressed on the third floor.
“What’s on second?” I asked, curious why we were skipping a level.
“Just rooms that we’ve slowly been turning into studios. Fourth is a mess and in need of heavy repairs, haven’t started up there yet.”
Once we got to the third floor, Lez drew me over to the first door on the left. He took out a pair of keys and unlocked it, thenhesitated before opening it. “Uh, this is a judgment free zone, got it?”
I gave him a suspicious look. “It’s not gonna be like…a room full of sexy anime figures and body pillows, is it?”
“No, that’s down the hall. Along with my sex dungeon.”
“I knew it.”
He pushed the door open, and we slipped inside. As he flipped on a light, I stood in the entrance way, taking in the room.
It had a similar layout to Dom’s apartment, the only difference was the theme. Instead of the cyberpunk retro feel of Dom’s apartment, Lez’s was filled with—
Superhero comics. From spiderman to superman. There were two large shelves of books covering one wall with nothing but comics. There were stacks still to be put away on the table near the kitchen. There were a few figurines of Green Lantern and Black Panther, and Storm. One whole wall was a mural with a cast of heroes from DC and Marvel.
“Holy shit, is that Spawn?” I said, staring at the wall.
Lez had been watching my reaction closely and I swear I caught his whole demeanor relax in an instant. His face lit up again, smile stretching from ear to ear. “The one and only. A friend did the mural for me.”
“It’s amazing! Aw, and you got Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy together!” I pointed to the two spiderverse characters swinging by a building in the backdrop.
“Love them,” he said.
I turned to him, looking at him as if for the first time. “You’re like a huge nerd, wow!”
He laughed, setting his drink on the table. “You’re one to talk. I figured you were too cool to even know half these guys, let alone Spawn.”
“You can thank my brother. Huge comic nerd too. Instead of reading all the cutesy books as a kid like Hungry Caterpillar, he put Spiderman into my hands. It’s one of the few things that connected us, especially when he was forced to babysit me. My sister used to make fun of us all the time.” I went over to the table and picked up the latest edition of Superman, flipping through it. “Haven’t really kept up on the latest stuff though, but I’ve watched the movies.” I noticed a few playing cards on the table with the images of Joker. Next to the TV and couch, I saw a few old gaming consoles and a small rack of games. He even had Thanos’s gauntlet and Doom’s mask sitting on top of one of the shelves.
“I know it’s a lot,” Lez said, leaning against the kitchen counter. “And probably makes me look like a loser to some. But…I didn’t exactly get a childhood. Neither me or Dom were given much even before we ended up down in the warehouse. I was gifted my first superhero book by a drug dealer if you can believe it. He’d kind of helped me and Dom after we got out of juvie the first time. It was a daredevil comic. I was pretty much hooked after that. Something about them just…makes me feel normal. Better. Even those days when I’m all fucked up in the head. I think how their struggles reminded me of my own. I don’t know if it's kind of crazy, but it helps.”
I set the comic down, placing my hand on top of it. I could imagine Leslie and Dom fighting crime, beating up baddies and coming home with scars. “I get it,” I said. “Honestly for you, it makes sense.”
Lez sat at the table and slid over a black box. It looked familiar to me, and I realized it was the one he had used back at the church with his weed. He opened it and took out some thin paper and a line of crushed weed, rolling it carefully into a joint.
“Care to join me on the couch?” He asked as he slid his chair back.
I took one last sip of my drink and set it down. “Alright, but just one hit. Too much and I get dizzy.”
I met him over at the couch, a much nicer one compared to the red one downstairs. A twin, I realized, to the one Dom had in his place. As we sank into the couch next to each other, Lez leaned forward and stuck the joint in his mouth, lighting it up. After one hit, he passed it over to me. I took a small hit, the smoke searing down my throat and instantly making me cough.
“Jesus, this is some strong stuff,” I said through coughing fits.
Lez chuckled, patting my back, then rubbing it. “And the best.”
As I was able to breathe normally again, I could feel the effects taking hold, mellowing me out. “Damn, you might be right.” His hand was still rubbing my back after the fact, but I didn’t move away or stop him. We sat for a moment as he took another hit and set the joint aside.
“I didn’t notice any of this back at the church…” I said offhandedly, gesturing to all of the room.
