Fortuitous || Jack Steele [1]

seventy

Once again it's ultimate chaos in this household. What's new?

"That's bullshit."

"Watch the language, Max!" I scold, leaning towards him and slapping his arm.

"You're not allowed to do that though!" He exclaims loudly, ignoring me, and throws his arms out, almost smacking me in the face. "You're not allowed to end on a draw four!"

"Yes you can, you idiot," Ben says like it's the most obvious thing in the world. He rolls his eyes at his brother.

"Shut up Ben and no you can't!" The oldest twin rebuts adamantly with an irritated look.

"Yeah well I did it anyway." Bytes shuffles in his seat on the floor and sits taller with a proud smile. His hands are empty of all uno cards.

"I demand a rematch."

"Jesus, you're such a child." I roll my eyes with a scoff.

I place my remaining cards on the floor but next thing I know Max has me in a headlock and rubs his knuckles to my head relentlessly. I yell my disapproval and squirm in his grasp like a fish on land.

"This is a violation! Hands off! Hands off!" I smack his arm repetitively but it doesn't even remotely dent his assault. "Ben, stop sitting on your flat ass and help me!"

My other brother sighs as if inconvenienced but he finally get up and decides to do something.

"Okay, Max stop—" thank god, he's going to help me "—harassing our sister without me." What?!

The youngest sibling begins to tickle me, his hands targeting my sides whilst Max keeps me immobilised. There's a chorus of laughs, screams and fuck you's spewing from my mouth as I try to worm my way out.

I squirm and squirm, kicking my legs, throwing my arms, but my brothers have me trapped and they don't plan to stop the torture anytime soon. So instead my stomach begins to burn from the pain of laughter and annoyance.

Bytes just sits back casually, legs crossed, and watches the assault amusingly, not stepping in to provide any assistance. This is utter betrayal.

Tears well in my eyes now and cloud my vision because of how much I'm struggling to breathe from all the laughter and profanities being reeled off.

"Okay okay, stop!" I wheeze out and finally they let me free, their arms falling away but their smiles growing even more superior and satisfied.

I lean over myself and suck in air. Oxygen is my best friend now. My sides ache so much too.

"I have lost respect for you." I point at Bytes with a betrayed expression narrowing my eyes as I still catch my breath.

"What? Why?!" Bytes whines, eyes widening at me with shock.

"Why do you think?" I grunt out, fixing my hair with my fingers whilst shooting the twins a glare. They smile innocently as if they did nothing. I roll my eyes.

It's decided that that's enough Uno for one day and instead we go outside. It's a lovely Spring afternoon with the sun brightening up our backyard with warm light. It would be rude to waste it.

I go upstairs and dress in more airy clothes whilst the three boys just go shirtless. Ew. I don't want to see that.

Bytes drags out the esky filled with beverages, mainly beer though, and sets it down on the grass by the veranda. I create a large food platter whilst Max and Ben grab cricket stumps, a bat and a ball.

My brothers return from inside the house with the cricket equipment and begin setting it up on the lawn. Ben places the stumps down and puts the wickets on top and once he's done I jump onto his back cheekily. He makes a sound of surprise and instinctively moves to hold me up so I don't fall backwards onto the grass.