Chapter 8
Summer of the promise
Nate and Leo’s loud voices tore me out of the comic I was reading. I tried to drown them out with pop music blasting in my headphones but those two were impossible to ignore when they got together to play video games.
Our parents were gone for the weekend for an impromptu vacation with money Dad made doing some kind of side job. They’d left me in charge — which revealed how much faith they put in the boys.
My patience waned when I clearly heard Nate’s entire rant above Britney Spears’ lyrics. The only thing keeping me from storming down there earlier had been Leo’s presence. The yells of victory that shook my door were my final straw. Embarrassment be damned.
I snatched the headphones out of my ears. Their cheering continued as I made my way downstairs. The living room’s coffee table was littered with junk food and bottles of soda neither one of them usually drank during the school year. On the TV was a multiplayer RPG game, with Nate’s character on one half of the screen and Leo’s on the other.
Neither noticed my presence at first. I stood in the doorway, resisting the urge to cover my ears when the sound of gunshots mixed with their laughter pierced my eardrum.
Leo reached over to mess with Nate by covering his eyes. Nate pushed him away, chuckled when the controller fell to the ground in the process.
“Damn it.” Leo laughed and hurried to recover the controller. While kneeling, he caught sight of me and his smile dropped.
It’d been a week since he sent Caleb to cover for him. A week of me dealing with the annoying mix of wonder, embarrassment, disappointment, and a dash of anger.
I thought I’d been handling the rejection well so far. I hadn’t once complained to Fran or Claire. Seeing him now pulled a disappointingly familiar reaction out of me. My heart slowed and pits began to sweat. I wanted to simultaneously run away and snatch out the cord of the TV, so he’d lose the game and feel a little like me right now: too frustrated for my own good.
“Keep it down,” I said, voice stern like our Mom when she had one of her drinking headaches. “Some of us are trying to relax.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Nate waved his hand in my direction. “Come on, Leo. You can still come back from this.”
“Sorry, Kira,” Leo said, no longer looking at me.
“She’s fine,” Nate promised but looked away from the screen this time. “Hey, you want to play after this match?”
I frowned and crossed my arms over my chest. “No, thanks.”
“Why not?” Nate asked and then looked at Leo. “She almost beat me last time.”
“No way. Nice.” Leo nodded. I could feel myself enjoying how he sounded impressed, despite him not looking my way again.
“I don’t even come close to beating you,” Leo mused and took his seat next to my brother again.
Nate laughed. “Yeah, tell me about it. You suck for as much as you play, man. Like so bad I think it’s a skill at this point. How do you do it?”
Leo snorted. “Shut-up. You probably cheat half the time to get that high of a ranking.”
“You wish. I’m just that good,” Nate promised and stopped talking for a moment to press a few more buttons, winning the bulk of his team’s points. “See?”
Leo chuckled. “Yeah, whatever. We can’t all be as naturally gifted as you.”
“Here.” Nate exited his match, much to Leo and my dismay. He had a buttload of points but exiting meant he’d lose it all. My brother didn’t seem to care in the slightest as he went through to screen looking for whatever he wanted to show Leo.
I lingered in the background, leaning against the wall to see what Nate was getting ready to do.
“Pull up your character,” Nate encouraged Leo.
“We’re going in the training area?” Leo sighed, lacking any sense of enthusiasm.
“You cut corners and didn’t learn the basics, didn’t you?” Nate asked. He gave Leo a knowing look. Leo promptly ignored the look as he ran his fingers through his hair. I tried not to notice how his white shirt tightened around his biceps while he moved. Those arms had been around my waist. Those hands pressed against my chest. Fingers hooked with mine.
I bit down on my inner cheek, forcing myself back to remember I was no better than wallpaper to him. It didn’t matter if I was red, yellow, or some beige floral pattern, nothing would be impressive about common wallpaper.
“If you cut corners, you’re going to have a harder time winning,” Nate explained in a patient voice. “I’ll show you.”
