“Yeah, because no one else was going to drink out of that,” I mutter in disgust as I shake my head, still scooping cereal from the ground with the dustpan and tossing it into the trash can.
“Brayden!” Mom shouts again with her hands on her waist. I giggle under my breath, trying not to be obvious to the fact that I'm enjoying him getting called out right now but Bray just laughs it off. “Oh, chill. It’s not like we all don’t come from the same blood line.” He puts the jug of juice back in the fridge.
I scoff. “Yeah, but who knows where your mouth has been.” I wince, pretty much forgetting that our mom is standing right there.
"Well, I take it back. You might actually be the mail man's baby," Brayden fires back and I roll my eyes.
“Okay, that's enough you two.”
We both smirk before turning away from each other. This is honestly how most of our mornings go. Bray and I bickering over something little, Mom getting irritated with something Bray is doing and Dad is usually just sitting in the background with hisphone and coffee, ignoring everything before we all break off and head out for the day. It’s a controlled chaos that seems to fuel this family. Something we’ve grown accustomed to over the years.
“So, about this party tonight,” my mom starts as she points her stern glare at my brother, sifting through the weekly mail that's been laying on the kitchen counter. “I’m not kidding, Brayden. I don’t want to come back to find anything broken, damaged, moved, or even touched. No noise complaints, no police, and absolutely nothing illegal.”
Mom looks over to me, but I widen my eyes at her. “This isn’t my party, he’s the adult now,” I say, pointing at my now eighteen-year-old brother.
“Yeah, but you’re staying aren’t you? I need you to keep your brother in check,” she responds as Bray turns his attention over to me.
“Wait, you’re staying for the party? I thought you said you already had plans,” Brayden asks me and I try my best to keep the fact that his best friend is the one who wanted me to attend. But the truth is, I’m only really going because I let Ryen talk me into it. At least that’s what I’m telling myself. Because part of me does kind of want to go for another reason.
“I told you last night, dummy. After I helped you with your math homework. You’re welcome by the way,” I state and he pinches his brows together, trying to recall that conversation.
“Right,” he says before turning back to Mom. “Well, Ma, I can promise you that everything is going to be fine. You don’t have to worry.”
She rolls her eyes but really, I think she knows that we won’t allow anything to happen that will jeopardize their trust in us. We’d be stupid to ruin that. Not a lot of kids our age can say that they have the leniency that our parents allow us, not that we run around all out of control and wild like some kids do. But it’snice to know that they trust us, even if I do know that Brayden is definitely going to push the limits just a smidge. But that’s my brother for you, and I think my mom is prepared to deal with that.
“Our hotel information is already plugged into the smart device, so if for some reason your father or I don’t answer our phones, you can call our room in case of an emergency.” Mom and Dad decided to spend the weekend out of town while they trust us with our home. I like to think that they know what they’re doing but as I see the look of mischief behind Brayden’s eyes, my concern starts to grow just a tad.
But we both nod our heads.
“Now, join us out in the garage. We have something we’d like to give you.”
I watch as my brother’s eyes light up and a smile curls on my lips. “Told you,” I mouth and he takes off out of the kitchen, my mom following behind him.
I stay to clean up my mess, but once I know that I’m alone, I reopen the text thread between Zach and I. I start to type outgood morningbut then delete it because I’m starting to feel myself overthink this.Ugh. Why am I struggling so hard with something that I’ve wanted for so long?
After I drop my bowl in the sink, I decide to open up social media again. The first thing I see is a new post from Zach. It’s a picture of him and Bray on a football field at one of their summer scrimmages, lined up and looking extremely focused. Then I realize that there’s more. The next slide is a picture of them from a long time ago. It looks like the end of sixth grade, maybe. They’re in the front yard of Zach’s house on their bikes, throwing up peace signs as they smile for the camera. The next picture is of them in the locker room at school, likely after one of their practices or something. I keep scrolling, finding three morephotos of some combination of him and my brother, and that’s when I read the caption.
Happy birthday, B man. Thanks for everything.
My heart warms. I’ve never seen Zach be all sentimental before. And I don’t know if I can recall him ever posting a birthday post for anyone. He usually doesn’t even post captions much if he does post something at all.
Just as I decide that I’m going to like this post on purpose this time, my phone starts ringing in my hand. I sigh in relief when I see it's Ryen.
“Oh, thank goodness. I need someone to talk some sense into me.” I greet my best friend desperately as I lean off the kitchen counter.
“Hold that thought. Did you see Zach’s IG post?"
"Uh, yeah. I was actually just looking at it," I reply.
"That boy is in love, Cadie.” She practically squeals in my ear and I have to pull the phone away from my ear to avoid an eardrum rupture.
“With my brother?” I ask, placing the phone back over my ear. I walk upstairs, taking two at a time, and head to my bedroom, wanting to make sure no one can listen in on our conversation.
“No. Withyou.”
“I’m not following,” I tell her as I throw myself down on my bed.
“Zach has never posted anything with emotional meaning like that ever. What’s the one thing that’s different in his life? Something that might have stirred up someooey gooeyfeelings?”
