make you miss me • q. hughes

03

"Good morning," Jack greets. He's sitting on the counter right next to the fridge.

These Hughes boys need to stop scaring the shit out of me in the kitchen. I swear. If Luke gets me at some point, I'm moving out of the country. Both countries. I'm a dual citizen. I will be moving to Europe if they get the trifecta.

I slide the back door shut behind me and give him my best out-of-breath, just finished a run smile. Usually, I'd grab some water and head back to my room to immediately shower. However, I'd feel a bit bad leaving Jack alone. I stop by the fridge and grab my water and the bowl of watermelon.

"How goes it?" I ask him while setting the bowl down next to him and hopping up onto the counter myself.

"No complaints here," he says. "Have a good run?"

"Every run's a good run."

"You really like running that much?"

"Absolutely." I offer one of the small cubes of watermelon to him. "It's so satisfying."

He takes it and says, "Still, man." and then pops it into his mouth. I'm about to say something back. Probably some stupid comeback defending running. But Trevor comes waltzing in. Why are two of them up at six in the morning? You'd think they'd be sleeping in during the off-season.

"Good morning, sunshines," Trevor says.

I shake my head, stifling a laugh. "G'morning, Z."

"She's already been up and on a run," Jack tells him.

"Overachiever." Z smiles as he fake rolls his eyes at my productivity. "What's the plan for today?"

"I'm going to go shower. Now that Jack has a friend."

Jack scoffs. "I thought you were my friend."

"I was. Ju-"

"Was?!"

"I am!" I correct. "But would you rather have a friend who smells bad or a friend who smells good?"

Trevor walks over, standing in front of the bowl. "She makes a good point."

"Thank you."

"Fine, go shower. See if I care." His voice is convincing. Jack actually sounds annoyed. But the moment I walk out of the kitchen they both erupt into laughter that echoes through the hall.

* * * * *

"Look, Schuy's here." The way Val's talking sounds like she's throwing me to the wolves. "She'll settle your argument." Oh. This bitch is throwing me to the wolves.

The three younger guys talk over each other. All I catch is something about winning and fist and... no. I don't think I heard something about Trevor being like twenty pounds. Luke definitely called Trevor like twenty pounds.

"Hey, hey! Guys, I don't hear anything you're saying." I take a spot at the picnic table covered in breakfast foods. Next to Val, across from Quinn. Sadly.

They quiet down. Trevor holds a hand up. "Which of us do you think would be easiest to beat in a fight?"

"Is Val included?" I ask. They nod. "She's at the top. Hardest to beat."

Luke laughs into his orange juice and has to twist around to cough away from the table. A very strangled "What?" comes from him.

"From lots of experience, Val is hard to beat in a fight," I explain. Okay, who's second? "Then... Luke."

Protests erupt from literally everyone. Except for Luke who stopped choking to be excited about placing so high.

"Listen! Youngest children fight dirty!" They settle down again at that. It's a good point.