Bionic Chaos [Leo Dooley]

Chapter Eight

"You can drop me off here," I tell my brother, Kian, as he pulls up to the Davenport house. I don't bother looking at him because I know that he will want to talk to me about whatever is on his mind today. I don't want to talk to him. "Thanks for driving me."

My hand brushes against the door handle, the cool metal sending pinpricks of goosebumps running along my skin. Kian always loved the cold, so it wasn't surprising when he went off to college in Colorado. What was surprising was him coming back. But enough of that. I really don't want to think about what he has done to our family. 

"Maggie," Kian says, almost cheerfully. Glaring at him from over my shoulder, I watch as his happy grin fall off of his face. His oh so familiar eyes, the same ones that I share, stare back at me, holding so many emotions in them. "I . . . uh . . . I just want to know what you're up to these days. I miss you, you know."

"The same old things," I say back to him, motioning toward my notebooks and phone. "Movies, shows, scriptwriting." He nods, his longer black hair falling into his eyes. "I have to go now, Kian. I'll see you later."

"Bye, Maggie."

I jump out of his car as quickly as I can. This is the most I've spoken to him since he came back home, which is saying something. Unfortunately, he's also my ride home, and I know he will want to talk to me more about how my life's been and how Mom and Dad have been and everything else under the sun. I don't want to talk to him.

Hurrying toward the front door of the house, I notice someone sitting on the bench right outside it. Of course it has to be Bree sitting there with an angry look on her face. It doesn't brighten at all when she sees me walking up the driveway toward her.

"What are you doing here?" she asks me.

"Well, I don't know," I say, rolling my eyes at her. "It's not because I have a school project to do with your step-brother or anything like that."

She stands up just as I'm about to ring the doorbell. "Don't try anything tonight," she says softly while opening the door for me. "I'll be watching you."

It's not like I'm going to do anything tonight. I need to actually get to know Leo a little bit more before I try anything like that. I also have to get my bearings here, which I can't do if I'm focused on catching video evidence of these bionic humans. My objective right now is to work on the project with Leo. That's it.

Bree and I step into her house together. It's actually really nice and clean in here, which isn't really what I pictured when I think about Leo. He's always such a mess when it comes to class. His papers always somehow fall to the floor out of his backpack that is stuffed full of papers among other things. I almost always have to help him pick up his things at the end of class because it's everywhere.

"Leo!" Bree shouts right in my ear. I jerk away from her in surprise. She just grins at me like she totally meant to do that. Maybe she did. "Maggie's here!"

"Coming!" Leo shouts back. His voice sounds so very quiet, like he's in a totally different part of the house. That's not that out there for this house, though, especially because it's a giant mansion.

"Are you guys always that loud?" I ask her with a frown.

"Unfortunately, yes," Bree says, nodding at me. Her voice sounds a little different right now as she talks to me. I wonder if she knows how much emotion I can hear in her voice. "My brothers are almost always yelling about something, especially if they're spending time with Mr. Dav - I mean, Dad." She frowns when she looks at me. "Wait, you know he's not my father, so I'm alright calling him Mr. Davenport."

"You don't spend time with Mr. Davenport? And is he your father?"

"Not really, no. I sure hope he's our father." She shakes her head slightly, raising her eyebrows for a second. "Do you have siblings?"