Size Matters - Chapter Two

Laid out before him were the khakis he had worn earlier and a dinosaur themed button up T-Shirt, many different dinosaurs printed on it and were even labelled. He sat on the end of the bed waiting for his brother to get out of the bathroom, when he finally opened the door and revealed he had the same shirt just larger Willy sat there in shock.

“Look, we have matching shirts again!” Dylan announced.

“Did you seriously get Mom to buy this same stupid shirt just larger?” Willy asked his brother.

“Yeah, that way we are twinning!” He explained through his goofy smile.

Willy rolled his eyes at his brother. “That’s dumb, now this stupid shirt will be in the wardrobe for years.” He complained.

“I like this shirt, it’s fun!” Dylan smiled at him, he stepped over to him and grabbed the zipper of his swim suit and pulled it down, freeing his brother.

“Thanks.” Willy grumbled clearly, still annoyed at his brother. The boy quickly changed into the dinosaur shirt and pants and felt a little nostalgic wearing the same outfit as his brother. He stomped over to his shoes, he hated his shoes since it seemed like his brother was two sizes bigger than him and he was stuck wearing his dorky hand-me-downs.

The shoes he was stuck wearing were colorful velcro sneakers, they even lit up every time he took a step, Willy hated everything about them. He roughly kicked his feet into the slightly too big shoes and pulled the velcro straps tight to keep them from falling off. He looked at his brother who was struggling with the laces of his shoes, these were his first pair with laces.

“Need a hand?” Willy asked his taller brother.

Dylan scoffed and struggled for a few more seconds. “Yeah, I miss my old shoes though.” He complained.

Willy paced towards his brother lighting the floor with each step and crouched down in front of him. His face flushed as he had been the one to convince his brother to get these shoes and now he was tying them for his brother while his feet were buried in velcro.

“Thanks Will.” Dylan said sheepishly looking down at his now tied shoes.

“It’s not that hard, you shouldn’t have worn velcro shoes for so many years, now I’m stuck with them.” Willy complained to his brother.

“The velcro shoes are easier and don’t come undone all the time.” Dylan whined as his brother finished up with his other shoe. “Let’s go meet Mom and Dad for dinner.”

The twins took the elevator down to the main lobby, Willy saw the two of them in the mirror and smiled at their matching outfits. For once Willy felt like they were twins again and the same age rather than years apart like most people thought they were. Dylan had a grin on his face as he saw his brother smiling at the outfits.

“I knew you would like twining again!” Dylan proudly boasted.

Willy cheeks flushed as he had just been complaining about the shirts. “A little I guess, I just wished our shoes matched.” He looked down and wiggled his toes, Dylan did the same.

“I do too.” Dylan agreed, eyeing Willy’s shoes.

The two of them crossed the lobby and met up with their parents, the four of them entered the resort’s restaurant and were seated at a table.

“Do we need a booster seat for the little guy?” The waitress offered the table.

Willy’s face flushed red knowing she was offering him a baby seat to sit on, before he could protest his father quickly replied. “No thanks, that won’t be necessary.” His father winked at him.

The waitress had three leather bound menus and a kids activity sheet and kids menu, she placed a small cup of well used crayons on the table beside Willy.

“Hello, my name is Melissa and I will take care of you today.” The waitress happily told them.

Willy looked at the mountain themed activity sheet and kids menu then looked at the adult menu sitting in front of his brother and frowned. “Hi Melissa, me and my brother are actually twins so we should have the same menu.” Willy told the waitress hoping to receive the adult menu.

Before Willy could say anything Dylan continued to explain. “Yeah, we need the same menu!”

Melissa just shrugged and picked up the leather bound menu and replaced it with a second activity sheet for Dylan and moved the cup of crayons to sit between them. Willy was about to ask for the adult menus but Dylan eagerly grabbed a well worn green crayon and started filling in the maze on the activity sheet.

“I’ll give the twins some time with the menu and be back soon.” She said with a wink and walked away with the adult menus.

“I wanted to order off the regular menu.” Willy pouted to his parents.

His Mom was smiling and trying to hold back a laugh at his predicament. “It’s okay honey, the children’s menu is cheaper and has all your favourites.”

Willy looked away from his Mom and defiantly doodled on the activity sheet refusing to actually do the games depicted on the paper menu. Melissa came back to the table and started to take their parents orders then turned to the boys.

Dylan quickly flipped the page over and decided what he wanted. “I’ll have the chicken tenders and fries.” He then looked at his parents. “And a chocolate milkshake.” He spoke in a soft sweet voice.

His Dad rolled his eyes. “It’s a vacation so alright.” He agreed.

“And for the smaller twin.” Melissa asked, causing him to blush.

Willy tossed the crayon back into the little cup. “I’ll just have what he ordered.” He decided without even looking at the menu.

“Coming right up!” Melissa cheerily left the group.

Dylan tried to get Willy to play some games of tic-tac-toe but he just sat staring away from his brother waiting for dinner to be over, he was getting tired of being treated like a little kid while his juvenile brother was treated like a teenager.

Dylan told their parents about the afternoon in the pool until Melissa finally returned with their drinks, a couple wine glasses for the parents and tall milkshake glasses for the two boys. She placed them down and hurried off to attend to other tables.

Willy and Dylan looked at each other, usually they wouldn’t be allowed such an unhealthy dessert. Willy carefully grabbed the drink with both hands and slowly sipped from the straw, for once feeling like a kid felt good. Carefully placing the barley drunk milkshake back on the table he looked at his brother who was quickly taking big gulps from his glass.

Their parents started to tell them the plan for tomorrow and how it is important to get a good night's sleep tonight. Both boys nodded since tomorrow they got to go skiing which they looked forward to every year, this year was special since they would be able to go around unsupervised on the taller hills. His brother greadily slurped his milkshake, finishing much faster than Willy who was still taking small sips. Food arrived quickly and the boys ate while the family chatted.

As Willy finished his meal and was about to finally work on his almost full milkshake his brother clumsily swung his arms when explaining the length of the slide they slid down and knocked Willy’s milkshake off the table and dumped it onto his shirt and pants.

“Ah!” Willy shrieked in the restaurant causing the other patrons to turn and look.

“Will! Your milkshake! Let me help!” Dylan cried and tried to wipe off the chocolate with some spare napkins and only managed to rub it deeper into his shirt.

Willy felt the weight of the other patrons staring at him, he heard whispers about a messy boy and how his big brother is kind enough to help. Willy was getting embarrassed and overwhelmed and tears started blurring his vision.

“I want to go to the room and change.” He told his parents while whipping away his tears.

Their parents looked at them with concern. “You two need to act your ages, spilling drinks and crying over it.” His mother scolded them. “Now be patient while we finish up.”

Willy blew his nose and tried to calm down while he sat there wet, cold and covered in chocolate while the other patrons slowly lost interest. Willy tried to sop up the drink with the remaining napkins, and eventually was left in his damp and stained clothing.

The waitress brought the cheque over and looked at Willy with concern. “Sorry about the milkshake buddy, we took it off the bill so don’t worry about it.” She explained sweetly.

“That’s very nice of you. Willy, thank Melissa for being so understanding about spilling your drink.” His Mom demanded.

“I didn’t spill it Mom, it was D-” He tried to explain before being cut off.

“No need for excuses, just thank Melissa and then you can go get cleaned up.” His Mom told him in a strict tone.

Willy looked at Melissa who was still smiling down at him, he felt cold, wet and embarrassed. “Thank you.” He mumbled softly.

Melissa smiled at him while the parents paid for the food. Their Mom and Dad told the boys to head off to their room, get cleaned up and go to bed, they were going to stay in the restaurant a bit longer. Willy jumped out of his seat noting how sticky his hands had become and noticed that the dinosaur shirt and his khaki pants were ruined.

Willy felt the glare of the bystanders as they watched the chocolate covered boy slink away with his taller brother, he took a deep breath and marched towards the elevator as Dylan followed him. When the elevator doors closed Willy finally started breathing again and looked at himself in the mirror. The chocolate stain covered the front of his shirt and carried down his legs, he was furious at his brother. “You spilled my milkshake all over me!” He snarled at Dylan.

“I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to!” Dylan pleaded with him, looking more upset than Willy.

“You let everyone believe I spilled it!” Willy grunted through his teeth,

“I didn’t know what to say.” Dylan told him, looking away from his reflection. “Please forgive me.” He gave his signature frown to his brother.

“It’s not fair.” Willy told him finally calming down, Dylan frowning always made him calm down since he knew if he continued to be mad he would start to cry. “I need to change.”

Willy and Dylan went back to their room. “Can you just get me my pajamas, I’m going to clean my hands before I get chocolate on everything.” He demanded of his brother who quickly went digging through the suitcase.

Willy stormed into the washroom and pulled off his ruined clothes, even though he didn’t like the shirt he was annoyed to see it stained like that, it had been Dylan’s favourite. Willy decided to just have a whole shower to clean himself off since he felt sticky all over the place.

He grabbed a towel and stepped out of the washroom to see Dylan had already changed and was sitting on the bed, he was wearing flannel pajamas bottoms and a grey long sleeve shirt, he looked worried and sullen.

“What’s wrong with you?” Willy told him, still annoyed from earlier.

“You’re already upset and I don’t think you are going to like the pajamas Mom picked out.” Dylan told him softly.

Willy froze in the middle of the room, after the swimsuit from earlier and then the dinosaur shirt he had a feeling he knew exactly which pajamas she packed. “I thought I threw those away!” He boasted.

“You did!” Dylan confirmed. “But I had them too, and that’s what she packed for you.”

“Yours were worse than mine!” Willy told him remembering the silly pajamas she had bought for them years ago, even then he had deemed them too childish to wear more than a few times over the years.

Folded on the bed beside Dylan was the familiar green fleece fabric, he looked at it with trepidation. He picked up the soft material and held it up with one hand, the outfit unfurled from its neat fold revealing itself. The ensemble was a dinosaur themed pair of footie pajamas, it had spikes running up its back with a dinosaur hood made to look like a mouth. A cartoonishly long dinosaur tail was attached to the back with buttons running down the front.

“These were too childish when we got them!” Willy told his brother, frustrated again, that he didn’t pack his own clothes for the trip and was forced to be dressed as a dinosaur loving little boy. “Why is everything dinosaur themed?”

“We own a lot of dinosaur stuff! I love dinosaurs” Dylan mused, glad to see his brother was distracted from the earlier incident.

Willy stared at the diminutive outfit while a breeze finally sent a shiver down his spine prompting him to finally start to unbutton the front of it. “This is so ridiculous.” He grumbled to his brother.

He pulled the fleecy warm material up his legs and shoved his feet into the pretend dinosaur feet. Willy messily tried to pull his arms through the sleeves and was having difficulty finding them, his brother came to his aid and held up the outfit for him so that he could slip his arms into it. After buttoning the outfit’s many buttons Willy finally held his arms out revealing the whole thing. “This thing is like a dorky costume for babies, even Mom let me get rid of mine.” He said to his brother.

“It’s a fun outfit!” Dylan confessed to his brother. “Who doesn’t want to be a dinosaur sometimes?”

Willy rolled his eyes at his brother, he said some of the most childish things sometimes. As Willy paced around the room his oversized dinosaur tail dragged along the floor. He looked at his brother who still seemed disappointed in something. “What’s wrong now? You wanted to wear this ridiculous getup?” He demanded of him.

“Sure, I would wear it but that's not the problem.” Dylan started to explain. “I just forgot to pack something.”

“What did you forget?” Willy asked, interested to hear about something he didn’t pack for a change.

“Just the little light up thing from my night stand.” Dylan admitted.

“So your night light.” Willy grinned. “You forgot your night light?”

“It isn’t a night light!” Dylan contested. “It’s just a little toy that happens to light up!”

“A toy that you keep on at night, every night, since you got it?” Willy asked him.

“Yeah, but it’s not a night light.” Dylan confirmed.

“So why do you need it?” Willy asked him, already knowing the answer and just wanted to hear his brother say it out loud.

“I don’t need it!” Dylan snapped. “I just don’t like sleeping in the dark.”

“Because you're afraid?” Willy pushed a little further.

“I’m not afraid!” Dylan said a little too loudly.

Willy started laughing at his brother and went to the light switch. “Fine let’s just turn this off and call it a night!”

“No wait!” Dylan cried, but Willy flicked the light off plunging them into darkness.

Willy was still laughing but soon noticed his brother was giggling as well. “What’s so funny?” He asked him.

“I forgot those pajamas had glow in the dark spikes and patches.” He told him pointing at the light up dinosaur in front of him. “I guess tonight you can be the night light.”

Willy was stunned, he had completely forgotten about this particular feature of these pajamas. With his face flushed and his brother had at least admitted he had a night light he finally made his way over to the bed to sleep beside his brother.

“Let’s just get some sleep.” Willy finally gave up and climbed into the large bed.

“Have a good night, Will.” Dylan told him, getting into bed after him.

“Good night.” Willy wished him back and the two of them shortly fell asleep.