It was one of the most stressful assignments that I, to this day, had ever had and it was solely because of my partner. It was our first time having a real conversation and working together, but his need for control was too much for me to tolerate. He also had the same overly confident attitude, and it was off putting. Thinking back on it, that was probably the beginning of our rivalry.
That project only solidified my beliefs of Javier. Javier Cortez was a cocky, self-absorbed, narcissistic, controlling, cute, pretentious asshole.
"I have a good memory," he smirked.
An awkward silence filled the air between us. There was nothing but the sound of the cars passing by on the road and those annoying bugs that make noise during the night. I did not know the name of them, but I knew how much I disliked them.
"Well," I finally broke the silence. "I've gotta go."
Javier nodded once as he put his helmet on. He didn't say anything as he adjusted himself on the bike. “See you tomorrow, Baby Richardson.”
He winked at me, and I couldn’t help the roll of my eyes. Then he drove off with a small wave, leaving me standing in the driveway.
"Thanks," I mumbled when he was already out of earshot. "For caring."
With a heavy sigh, I unlocked my front door. I was grateful to finally be back because all that was on my mind was how badly I needed a shower and sleep. However, my gratefulness was overshadowed by irritation the moment I saw my siblings chilling on the couch without a care in the goddamn world. Like they did not leave me for hours with the false hope that they were coming back for me.
I stood in front of both of them so that they could see the pure anger on my face. "What the hell?"
Emerson continued texting on her phone and pretending like I was not fuming at the sight of her. Easton was spread out across the couch, staring at the ceiling.
"Don't ignore me." I gritted my teeth.
Emerson glanced at me. "What crawled up your ass and died?"
Honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised by their lack of a reaction. They did shitty things to me often and then acted as if I was being unreasonable for being upset.
"Why would you tell me that you were coming back and then not come back?" I asked. "That was unnecessarily mean."
Neither of them responded. I huffed, fighting back the tears that I felt creeping up. Now was not the time to cry, especially not in front of them. It was the time to give the twins a piece of my mind and let them know how fucked up that was.
"Easton, are you even listening?" I yelled, my fists clenched tight by my side.
"You know he's not," Emerson mumbled.
I quickly realized what she meant. I then groaned and threw my hands over my face in frustration. "Why are youalwayshigh?"
Easton finally opened his eyes, barely. He looked at me, and when he did, my irritation grew. His eyes were red and barely even open. He clearly hadn't been listening at all, he probably just realized I was there.
"Instead of picking your brother up from school you two decided smoking was the better option. I almost had to walk the whole way home," I yelled.
"I haven't smoked," Emerson said simply.
Easton scoffed. "I don't need a lecture from an alcoholic."
That felt like a slap in the face. It wasn't true, I wasnotan alcoholic. I drank sometimes before bed, but it wasn’t detrimental. It helped me sleep at night. Neither Emerson nor Easton had ever mentioned my night drinking before, so I had thought they never noticed. I was wrong. They noticed, they just never bothered to say anything.
"I'm not an alcoholic you prick," I seethed.
"Yeah," Emerson laughed. Apparently this conversation was funny to her. "And I am the smartest person in our school."
"Fuck both of you! You guys have always been assholes to me, but this is lower than I thought you would go," I yelled as I dug my fingernails into my arm, trying my hardest to stay somewhat calm.
Emerson stuck her hand out and touched her thumb to the rest of her fingers continuously to make her hand look like a mouth opening and closing. She was mocking me, trying to say that I was talking too much.
That was when I heard the bathroom door creak open. I jumped when I realized who had been listening the entire time.
Standing there with his long auburn hair and tattooed arms was Benji, my brother's best friend and my sister's boyfriend. I lowkey had a thing for him, but it wasn’t anything more than a typical younger sibling crush on their older siblings’ friends.
