Page 51 of Thunder

Wait what?

“Lorenzo,” I say firmly, “I didn’t smash your guitar. I put purple hair dye in your shampoo, or I thought it was yours, but it was actually Dad's, so I decided the silent treatment instead. I never touched your guitar, I knew how much it meant to you.”

“I knew it!” Dad snaps, and I give him a wince and say, “For what it's worth, the purple suited you.”

“Scottie,” Lorenzo says, ignoring Dad's scowl and Mama's giggles that she’s trying to hide, and I look his way, “My guitar was smashed on the bed, Rachel said–”

He cuts his own words off and looks at Rachel sharply, and I sigh, putting two and two together while Bradley snorts, “Fucking predictable…”

“Please tell me you didn’t ruin the one thing I loved all because you hated my relationship with our little sister?” Lo snaps, and Rachel shuffles in her seat, and Mama’s giggles are completely gone as tension fills the room. Lo scoffs, “So ensuring she was pushed out by our parents and having an affair with her high school sweetheart weren’t good enough? You had to make sure she didn’t have me as well? Were you that jealous of her?”

Rachel scowls and denies, “I’m not jealous of her!” and I shake my head before Mama squeezes my hand and whispers, “Please eat,” and I look her way.

She smiles slightly, ignoring Rachel and her little tantrum and nods to my now full plate, and mentions, “I didn’t order it as I had done in the past, I made it from scratch.”

I swallow but nod, and I pick up my fork, and I do as she requested and eat.

Oh wow….

Lo snaps at Rachel, “You are fucking pathetic. I treated her like shit over that guitar and all because she what, huh? Didn’t bow down to your feet? Decided she didn’t want to live off our parents like you?”

I lean my body against Bradley, who instantly wraps his arm around my chair, his fingers going to my hair as he begins to eat. I notice Kavan glaring at us before my attention goes to Yasmin, whose eyes are on Bradley, and I narrow mine.

“Yasmin, unless you want your new nose to be broken, stop staring at my boyfriend!” I snap, gaining everyone’s attention.

I’ve never felt jealousy or possessiveness before, but I definitely feel it right now and it’s raging.

“You touch me, and I’ll sue you,” she sneers. “We both know you’re in debt. Medical school isn’t cheap, and your parents didn’t fund it because you’re a disappointment so it will bankrupt you.”

“Coming from a woman who is living off her in-laws?” I snarl back, and she narrows her eyes but tenses when Dad mentions, “Actually, Yasmin, I paid off a quarter of her loans after she’d already paid half, and Lorenzo paid the other quarter.”

I look at my big brother in shock, and he shrugs as he reminds me, “You worked your ass off, and I wanted to do something to show you how proud of you I am.”

“You did what?!” Yasmin screeches, but no one pays her any attention as my eyes tear up.

“Thank you, Lo,” I whisper, and he grins.

“Scottie, do you have a minute?” Mama asks as I put my fork on my plate and I look at her to see hope shining back to me.

Does she deserve my time? No, not really, she basically treated me like shit on her shoe all because Rachel had issues with sharing attention. But I’m also not a bitch, I have morals and I don’t want to see my mama cry.

Sighing, I nod before I turn to Bradley and give him a chaste kiss that he smiles at and he whispers, “Remember, knife,” and I narrow my eyes before I look at Dad and say, “Please be sure if he sees me struggling that he doesn’t hurt himself as a way to get us out of here,” and Dad chuckles while Bradley gives me another kiss and I smile as I stand and I threaten, “You do something stupid then I’ll throw Felix at you,” and he retorts, “You’ve got to catch the thing first.”

I grin as I follow Mama out of the dining room, barely hearing Rachel snap, “Why is she suddenly your main focus, and how in the hell did she catch a brother?” as Yasmin’s growls, “You paid for her schooling out of our money?!”

Well, I can see this evening is going to go swimmingly, and I’ll probably smack my sister or Yasmin before dessert. Or Bradley will shoot Kavan, who hasn’t taken his eyes off me…

Chapter 18

Thunder

I smile softly as I watch Scottie talk to her mama, who is taking in every single word her daughter is saying.

Despite Kavan glaring my way every five minutes, despite Rachel's snide remarks and Yasmin staring at my cut, my girl is doing good. Don’t get me wrong, she’s confused, but she’s doing alright and it helps that for the past hour her and her mama have been talking.

“Well, dinner was shitshow,” Marshall mutters as he stands beside me and I hum because yep, it was. Especially after Ellie decided she wanted dessert on her own with her youngest.

“Rachel's been brought up like her shit didn’t stink,” I say, not sugarcoating it, “And if her and Yasmin keep eyeing my cut, Scottie will attack.”