Ryan decided to add half an inch to his height and dropped five pounds and then headed into the house for dinner. He hid the chronivac in his backpack, pretty much the only private space he had and put it under his bed. The three boys shared an attic room accessible via fold up stairs, that was clearly not meant to be lived in. Their father had put up drywall but never got around to really completely finishing it. The roof was too low and the three twin size mattresses on the floor took up almost every inch of space. The family ate dinner quickly and with the exception of the occasional "pass this or that" in silence. "Aaron and I are going to go out with some friends to a bonfire tonight," Mike said nonchalantly as the kids cleared the table. The parents approved without asking a question, farming was hard work and they were too tired to really care about what on its face seemed innocent enough. As the twins got ready to head out for the night, Ryan went over to join them. "Let me come to, guys" he asked filled with a little extra confidence thanks to fairly imperceptible changes. Aaron and Mike looked at each other, and Ryan could tell they were coming up with a way to say No, so he continued, "Come on, I'm 16, I'm not going to tell on you, I promise I won't embarrass you, don't leave me here with Mom and Dad". "Fine, we might need a driver anyways" Aaron grunted, get your stuff. "Ry-guys is hanging out with the big boys" Mike teased tussling Ryan's hair.
The party was happening on an abandon farm about 2 miles from their house. Close enough that they could have walked but it would have been annoying with the cases of beer and the liter of Jack Daniels. They got there right after the sun went down. There were about 12 people there, including Ryan's cousin Jeff, who was 16 too and his older brother Dave who was 19 and had graduated the year before. They lived on the family land and were destine to work it the rest of their lives too. They fit the family mold that Ryan didn't, strong and athletic, but not so bright. The world needs ditch diggers to, right. The first few hours were fun but uneventful. Ryan had two beers, he didn't like the taste but didn't want to seem 'uncool' so he drank slowly, but made sure people saw he had one. Then the Jack came out and people started taking pulls right from the bottle. It came to Ryan and he hesitated just for a second, but long enough for Dave to pick up on it. "Whats wrong Ryan? Can't handle it?" he slurred already having had way too much to drink. "I can take it" Ryan retorted and in one swift move opened his mouth and tilted the bottle into it before slamming it back down. The liquor came up almost as quickly as it went down, there were a few laughs but none louder or more sneering than Dave's. "whydida you even bring him?" he asked looking to the Twins, who did not look pleased. "You guys are cool, I like you, but he's not even like us" Dave continued his drunk slurry speech. "We thought we'd give him a chance" Aaron spat back, "whatever dude, he's your family too" Mike added accusingly to Dave. The party had come to a dead stop. Ryan was so embarrassed, he looked around to find Jeff hoping for a little sympathy, but found him snickering with a group of his friends and acting Ryan throwing up. Ryan slowly sulked away from the party and started walking home.
As he made the trek back home, Ryan thought about how typical what just happened was in his life. The twins were worse than best friends or partners in crime, they were like one person. They could be alone in the house and break something and when Ryan got back with his parents they would blame it on him. Even in a situation where there was no hope that anyone was going to believe their lie, they stuck to it. It was always going to be each other first. The cousins weren't much better, growing up poor seemed to make them more competitive. We might not have money but we're good looking and athletic...ohh except for Ryan, so we'll just act like he's not one of us. Ryan made it to the house and crawled into bed. As he fell asleep, his last thoughts were; he'd show them, he'd become better than one of them, he'd show them all.