“This looks amazing.”
“Thank you. I called Chelsea and asked what she makes for you. She says chicken is your favourite.”
“I can’t believe you managed to get pumpkin. I thought you guys only got these in the fall.”
“Autumn.”
“Whatever.”
“Well, I know a guy and what my lady wants, my lady gets.”
“Two, four, six, eight, bog in, don’t wait,” Kalen sings, and I snort. His brothers look at him like he is crazy.
“It’s something Aadi or Smalls would say before food. It’s stupid but it reminds me of them.”
“How are things between you and Jason?” Sawyer asks. I love that nicknames weird him out. He always almost stumbles on the name if he says Smalls.
“Better, especially now that he’s seeing someone.”
Onyx tenses up as we talk about Smalls, Kalen shovels food in his mouth as he listens, and Slate remains neutral.
“Ugh, Katie is on my shit list, she dressed up as a clown and I almost shit my pants,” Kalen complains between mouthfuls.
“She lost a bet, Kalen, and we take that seriously. She had no choice but to pay up. I really like her, she’s good for him.”
“Do we have to always talk about him?” Onyx snaps.
“Jealousy doesn’t look good on you, brother,” Sawyer laughs, and if looks could kill, Sawyer would have just dropped dead.
“He was my best friend for years and will continue to be a close friend forever. I’m always going to talk about him. I won’t give him up, and it’s not fair of you to ever ask. I love him, butI’m notinlove with him. I can see the difference now. I was young and I went through something really traumatic, and he was always there for me. With how close we were, lines were blurry but they’re not any more, so you have nothing to worry about.”
“You still fuc…..”
“Onyx,” Slate growls. “Enough.”
“It’s okay, we should hash this out right now. Yes, I did fuck him as you were so eloquently going to put it, but at the time I needed to erase the crawling feeling under my skin from being violated. He helped me to have a positive relationship with sex, so screw you,” I snap. “Besides, you don’t see me getting pissed because all of you weren’t virgins when we met, do you? I refuse to be held to some bullshit double standard.”
“I’m sorry,” he snaps through gritted teeth, standing and leaving the room, obviously going off to seethe and sulk. I begin to stand but Sawyer places his hand over my arm and stops me.
“Leave him, he needs to work this out for himself.”
I nod. Sawyer’s right, I can’t run after Onyx every time his temper gets the better of him. I don’t regret it and I can’t take it back anyway. Not that I would.
We all eat and enjoy our meal. Onyx’s tantrum is quickly forgotten, and we all retire to the living room to watch a movie. Kalen moves all of the furniture around to make it easier for us to actually watch the TV.
Kalen puts on ‘Central Intelligence’ with Kevin Hart and The Rock because he’s dumbfounded that neither me or Sawyer have ever watched it.
Unfortunately, when Kalen has seen a movie more than once he can recite all the words, and he is terrible at an American accent.
“Stop, just stop,” Slate laughs, tears rolling down his face. Kalen is saying the words and mimicking the moves in a fight scene.
“You’re just jealous that I have sick moves,” he replies, throwing a punch into the air.
I’m snuggled into Sawyer’s side and we have a blanket pulled over us.
“Sick moves?” Onyx questions, finally returning from his tantrum, all sweaty in his work out gear.
“It’s an Aussie thing,” Kalen replies. “You wouldn’t understand.”
