Heartbeat [Alec Volturi]

Kryptonite

"Balloons?"

Felix nodded eagerly, hauling over a medium sized cardboard box from the depths of his closet. I waited patiently on his couch with my legs crossed. Demetri sat on the floor in front of the couch and next to Felix's briefly abandoned spot. A joypad, as the men had been suggestively referring to the video game controllers as all day, hung loosely in his left hand. The pad of his thumb tapped impatiently on the A button. Though his focus was as equally dedicated as Felix's regarding the purpose of the box.

"Genius, isn't it?"

I tilted my head and looked between the two of them. "What exactly is your plan—?"

"Never mind that." Felix dropped the box beside me on the couch. Growing all the more curious, I reached in and clasped a handful of latex party balloons. "First, you blow up these balloons and we play video games."

My jaw dropped and with a whine, "how come I have to do all the work?"

He waved me off, sitting back down with his controller. "We all have to pay our dues."

"Fiya," Demetri kept the game paused and rhythmically patted my knee. The nickname they had adopted had grown on me. While I rather liked my full name, this was the first time I would receive a real nickname from actual friends. "Dear, sweet, Fiya. It just so happens that Felix and I are the kings of the prank world. And we are willing to train you in the sacred art of practical jokes. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity."

Felix was nodding urgently on my other side, feeding me a theatrical explanation of the so-called, 'coursework'.  "You will study the most exalted pranks of them all. The art of the prank requires stealth, creativity and at times, even a dash of Judas."

I squinted at the duo's natural flare for dramatics. Forget video games. They should be putting on full scale Shakespearean productions. They could rewrite each play for vampires. It would definitely put a new spin on Romeo and Juliet...

"But first. You have to blow up like 50 of these things."

Unfortunately for them, embellishments and persuasion had been ingrained in me by a professional con man. I wasn't eating any of their baloney. "No way. Your instructions alone could be a prank." If I was going to individually blow up 50 balloons, it had better be for a real prank. If they ditched the latter and only pranked me, I'd accuse them of being false kings for such a bland and uncreative approach.

Felix wiped a fake tear from his eyes. "She's a natural! So intelligent." He threw a sassy smirk to Demetri. "She gets that from me."

Four days. I had received four days alone to grieve before Felix and Demetri had kidnapped me from my room to watch them engage in various activities - mainly, video games. It became a regular routine in order to keep me from wallowing alone in my room. They meant well, declaring that distraction was the best medicine. I'm not sure that the jingle held quite as much weight with me. Mainly due to the fact that it didn't seem like the healthiest coping strategy, but they insisted so I sucked it up.

In the days that followed, we found a pattern of hopping between different hobbies. As odd as the approach had seemed at the beginning, I found stability in the developing schedule. There were a few sparring sessions where Demetri got his butt kicked and we played a rather heated game of Monopoly. For the most part, however, we were usually holed up in Felix's room as they switched off between playing several games where the goal was to tally the most kills in one war zone or another and another game, something called Mario Kart.

Their rambunctious behaviour had been turned up about three levels from its standard. Eventually, somewhere between the stupid jokes and witty banter, I started laughing again.