The Connected

Chapter 18

*Sang*

    "I'm not talking to you."

    "Me? What did I do?" Luke looks genuinely confused, and a little hurt that his littlest partner in crime is ignoring him. He shoots me a pleading look as if I could possibly know what might be going on in that evil little brain right now.

    Ollie huffs, shoveling a chunk of pancake into his mouth, giving Luke a pretty effective glare considering the major chipmunk cheeks he has going on. "You know what you did. I thought we were friends."

    "Little buddy, I swear I don't have a clue what you're talking about," Luke rounds the kitchen counter to him, but Ollie holds out a sticky, syrup-covered hand to stop him.

    "Talk to the hand, Traitor," he says, and I don't miss the way everyone tries to hide their laughter even though Luke looks genuinely concerned.

    "Ollie..."

The pancake and syrup covered mess huffs and spins around in his chair, facing away from the adults in the room. "Talk to the booty, 'cause the hand's off-duty."

I can hear Gabriel practically wheezing behind me, he's fighting so hard not to laugh. Even Owen's eyes are dancing. I sigh.

"Oliver Micheal, what have I told you?"

He contemplates. "Don't lick your brothers?"

"No, the other thing."

"Your teacher doesn't want to see your underwear?"

"No, Ollie."

"Ignoring people isn't nice?"

I raise my eyebrow at that one, maintaining eye contact until he gives in and shouts, "They have two tree houses! Two! And want to know how many I've seen? Zero, zilch, no tree houses. Freaking rude."

He crosses his arms over his chest, glaring at the guys, more specifically at Luke who has the grace to look a little guilty.

"Ollie man, we're sorry. We weren't keeping them a secret on purpose, there are just a lot of rooms in this place and it seems we skipped a few," Luke says, a note of pleading entering his voice now. Not all of them have learned when Ollie is faking being upset.

Crickets.

Not a word from the littlest demon.

In fact, the indifferent mask he wears is a little disturbing. I may need to limit the one on one time he spends with Owen. The absolute last thing we need is for the four year old to learn all of his Jedi mind tricks.

"Come on, bud." Luke reaches over to poke Ollie's side, likely hoping for a reaction. He's going to be disappointed. Normal diversion tactics don't work with that one, especially not when he feels wronged.

Poke. "Talk to me."

Poke. "Please?"

Poke. "Pretty please with sprinkles on top?"

Slightly more aggravated poke. "Stop ignoring me."

Pouting, Luke glances my way as if I somehow have control over Ollie's mind. "Sang, make it stop."

I share an exasperated look with Cam and Jamie, they know how our resident drama queen can be. Raising one eyebrow, I give Ollie a look. Hhe rolls his eyes.

"You never let me have any fun," he says, mumbling under his breath. He hops off his stool and grabs Luke's hand. "To the tree house, Jeeves."

The others finally start to laugh, a few of them standing to join.