I feel like they keep forgetting that I live with them.
“Delete that right now” Lucas orders. I shake my head and take a sip of my slushie, trying my best to keep my composure.
This is too fucking good.
“I swear to god pretty girl, if you show anyone that picture I will commit a felony.” His face doesn’t break into a smile –like I thought it would– and now I want to piss my pants.
I’m not small by any means, I’m only an inch or two shy of six feet, but he’s still much larger than I am.
Just as I’m about to make some snappy comeback to his blatant threat, my phone rings. I look down to see Chris’s name across my screen and pick up.
I can barely understand a word he’s saying, he's speaking too fast, “Can you calm down for two seconds? You’re not making any sense.”
The boys look at me, furrowing their brows. I mouth the word ‘brother’ to them and they nod their heads in understanding.
“Our parents are fucking insane” Chris says after a deep breath, “they called me this morning, complaining about the fact that you haven’t spoken to them in almost two months… as if they don’t knowwhy.”
I can tell he’s about to boil over with rage, so now I have to go into defensive sister mode and calm his crazy ass down. He helps me with my crap, and I help him. It’s a team effort to keep one another sane, “okay, first of all, they never think they do anything wrong. Second, why is it affecting you so much? They pull this shit like every other week.”
“Because they kept me on the phone for overtwo hours.Two fucking hours of non stop talking about how ungrateful you are, I almost snapped at them. If I could cut them out without it hurting you, I would.”
I feel awful, he shouldn’t have to put up with our parents shit, and it’s definitely not fair that he has to put up with it because of me.
“I appreciate you backing me up, I’ll call them this weekend to try and appease them.” God I hate that they have me so under their thumb, “I’m sorry they’re using you as the middle man.”
“Don’t let them push you around please. I just wanted to call and give you the heads up that Satan one and Satan two might be blowing up your phone at some point soon.” I laugh at the nicknames he’s given our parents, quite fitting if you ask me. “Oh, and what did your roommates think of the game the other night? I hope everything was to their liking.”
I almost want to tell him how much of a disaster it was, he’s the one of the only people I can truly tell everything and anything to. But after a split second, I decide to keep my mouth shut. It’s not going to end well if he thinks these boys hurt me, he’d be on the first flight here just to kick their ass’s.
“It went well, the guys had a great time. Thanks again for getting those extra tickets for me, I really appreciate it.”
“Do the guys know I’m me yet?”
A laugh escapes me, “nope, no clue. But I promise I’ll do it at some point, I just need more time.”
I can practically see the sad smile on his face. He’s heard all about my adventures in high school with the fake friends and non-stop berating from my fellow classmates. I hope he knows it’s not him, he’s not the problem. I’m not ashamed that I’m related to Chris, not in the slightest, I just don’t want to deal with the headache of other people not knowing how to handle themselves.
“Okay Angel, I gotta go but we’ll talk soon okay?”
I don’t even need to answer, he knows what I’m going to say before I even say it.
* * *
I love the guys, I really do, but I think they’re scaring Steph.
I invited her over for dinner tonight, completely forgetting that I live with a pack of wild animals. These boys have way too much energy for people who just had a two hour hockey practice.
They’re currently blasting music and playing some random ass video game I’ve never heard. August and I, however, are in the kitchen cooking for the rest of them like the parents we are.
Steph comes and wraps her hands around my shoulders from behind, she gets up onto her tiptoes and whispers in my ear, “these boys scare me. Help.”
“Oh come on, they’re not that bad” I laugh. “They’re just really into kicking each other's buts. They’ll calm down eventually, promise.”
She backs away from me, hopping onto the counter to watch August and I work away, “that smells so fucking good. I can’t wait to try.”
“August's recipe, I’m just helping,” I say.
“Really? Well I might need to have you cook for me more often if it tastes as good as it smells.” She smiles shyly at him, and that look in her eyes can only mean one thing… She's flirting.
