“Maybe it’s time we all went to bed?” David raised the question to all of us. “We can clean up in the morning.”
He grabbed for Margaret’s hand and pulled her up from the couch and led her down the long hallway to their room. It was at the farthest point of the house, away from all of us kids.
“I think that sounds like a good idea.” Jack said. “I, unlike you two, will be up in 4 hours so Icanget to work today.” Jack gave us a judging look, but I knew he was playing. “But in all honesty, Lilly, you do need a break.”
“Thanks for recognizing that, Jack.” Even though Jack and I got along only sometimes, it really was like he was my brother. He always took care of me and looked out for me.
“Of course, you need it, from having to take care of everything the last two days becausesomeonedecided to just take two days off, and now a third.” I could feel the tension between the brothers and I wanted no part of it. This was one of the times when their only similarities came out. They were both hot heads, but only to each other.
“And now we’re off to bed!” Delilah jumped up from the couch and grabbed Jack’s arm, dragging him to the opposite side of the house. It had an odd layout and while everyone else’s rooms were on the first floor, Greg’s was the only room on the second floor.
When Margaret set up the guest rooms for the kids, she made sure that there wereonlytwin beds in the rooms and, when I started staying over more and more, she made sure a second twin bed was added to Greg’s room, so he didn’t have to sleep on the couch anymore.
I lifted myself off of Greg when I saw Jack and Delilah disappear down the hallway. I didn’t say a word, but held out my hand to help him up. He didn’t take it. He pushed himself up and made his way towards the kitchen without saying anything.
I huffed into the silent living room and made my way up the stairs that were near the front door to the studio-style loft. It had a bathroom off to the side, and I made sure to wash my face and brush my teeth with a new toothbrush that I knew Margaret always put there every three months. I tied my hair in a knot and stripped out of my clothes, tiptoeing back into the room, making sure not to step on the only four creaky floorboards in the loft. I was standing there in only my underwear and nothing else, rummaging through the dresser drawers against the far wall. I grabbed for the first shirt I found and pulled it on.
I heard footsteps coming up the stairs and I dashed over to the bed closest to the window. I hated sleeping by the stairs, because, even though I knew no one could get into this fortress of a house, it didn’t mean it didn’t scare the shit out of me to be so vulnerable.
I laid in bed on top of the covers and grabbed the throw blanket to wrap around myself. I heard one creak, then two, and after the third, I knew Greg was letting me know that he was headed towards the bed I was pretending to sleep in. He set down a glass on the table between the beds. I could hear the glass hit the solid wood before he moved to the other bed. I laid there, trying to even out my breaths into a deep sleep, but it was ruined.
“Psst.” I ignored him. “Psst.”
I started to count sheep in my head.
One.
Two.
Three.
“Wife.”Nope. Not having that.
“What?” Seething at Greg, I sat up and whipped my head around. A pillow hit my face the second I was turned toward him. I was so shocked that I didn’t know what else to say. I just sat there with the pillow in my lap and my mouth gaped open.
“You look gorgeous in my shirt.” The moonlight hit his face just right and the smirk on his face drew out the anger in me.
“Ugh.” I threw the pillow back at him, smacking him dead in the face. I turned over, grabbed one of the two pillows I still had and sandwiched my face between them, shutting out the world around me. I could hear Greg’s bellowed laugh fill the room, but I tried to shut it out, thinking of fingers tapping on glass, scratching on cardboard, or a brush on a mic.
Peace and quiet quickly consumed me in my thoughts, but the dreams I had weren’t all peaceful, especially when they were filled with only one person.
Greg.
