The Darker Side of Me

Chapter 20: So do You Want to Stay?

When we got downstairs, I saw Sarah in the kitchen on the phone with someone and Hunter was there laughing beside her. She looked pretty annoyed so I figured she was on the phone with either her parents or her stepbrother Mike.

"Yes, I just want to talk to mom for a minute," I heard her say. Yep it was definitely Mike.

I walked over to her with Logan following and she caught sight of me. She sent me a look begging me to help her. I was always good with people from we family and I knew just how to work them. I motioned for her to hand me the phone and she did just that.

"Hey," I said sweetly.

"Noah? Hi," Mike said cheerfully. "Long time no talk, how's it?"

"Good, and you?"

"Awesome. Your dad still a douche?"

"Yeah, but I'm not there anymore so I'm trying not to look back on it much."

"Never weak."

"Too strong." That was a saying that he came up with over the phone with me a couple years back. It was after I told he and Sarah about the first time my dad beat me black and blue. I said that I would never ever be weak against my dad and he replied saying it was because I was too strong. Ever since then it just stuck.

"So can I talk to my other mother?" I asked.

"She's not here," he answered. "But your other father is if you want to talk to him."

"Perf."

I heard ruffling from the other end of the line and then all of a sudden, a deep voice said, "What do you want?"

"Well, hello to you too daddy dear," I said feigning hurt.

"I'm kidding. How are you Noah?"

"I'm good."

"That's good. How are you taking all this werewolf business?"

"Surprisingly well actually. So umm, Sarah had a question for you but I just had to get Mike's stubborn ass of the phone so she could talk to you. So here she is."

As I gave Sarah back the phone, she mouthed a quick thank you and started talking to her dad. I turned back to face Logan. He was laughing about something and I tried to give him an inquiring look, but his amazing laugh was contagious so I ended up chuckling along with him.

"What's so funny?" I asked after a couple seconds.

"You," he answered simply. "Who's Mike and why is he a stubborn ass?"

"Sarah's stepbrother. And he's a stubborn ass because he's always giving us a hard time whenever we want to talk to her dad or stepmom about something. But I have my little bag of tricks that I pull out every so often."

"Oh yeah? What what might that be?"

"It's all in the tone of your voice. When you're talking to a smart grown up guy, like Dustin, you have to be firm and assertive. But if you're talking to a completely ego inflated jock who has his head stuck firmly up his ass crack, like Mike, you have to ease your purpose into the conversation so he doesn't catch on too quickly the real reason why you called."

"Ill make a mental note of it," he chuckled. "So why have you got this all figured out and Sarah still doesn't? I mean it's her stepbrother, isn't it? Shouldn't she be telling me these things?"

"Well you see, Sarah is one to want to get things done as soon as possible. If she calls you for something, she doesn't talk around the subject, but just jumps straight to the point. She's also very easily irritable and for someone like Mike with his laxidazical way of living, it leaves doors open for him to just piss her off even more."