Back Talking & BackHanding

More About You

Ari POV

It was really dark outside. Must've been really late. There was talking coming from the kitchen and a few laughs. Sean and Marc seemed to be getting along well. Having fun together. But I didn't care if they were having sex, I wanted Sean to come to bed. I got up and closed the door after he left and put on my pajamas. It was cold so I put on sweats. But my arms were still cold.

I noticed Sean's sweatshirt laying on the side of his bed so I grabbed it and put it on. Warm and comfy. It felt like Sean was hugging me. Well, sorta. Not quite the same but close enough. I was looking for my headphones when Sean and Marc came in the room. They were laughing about something but I wanted to find my earphones. "Whatcha lookin for?"

Sean asked. "My earphones." I say picking up my backpack and going through every pouch. "Why?" Sean asked. "Why do you think?" I said sort of irritated by that question. Sean gave me a slight glare telling me to check myself. "But you're about to go to sleep." Sean said. "And that means I can't listen to music?" Okay, I didn't know why but Sean's childish questions were getting on my nerves.

"You know what, never mind." Sean said. "Do you mind if Marc sleeps on your bed?" He asked. "No." I said. "So you guys don't sleep in the same bed?" Marc asked. "Not all the time." Sean said. "Why?" Sean shrugged and said, "We just don't get along all the time." Damn right we didn't get along all the time. Marc nodded understandingly. "You didn't each much to day, aren't you hungry?" Sean asked me. "No." I said.

He furrowed his eyebrows then rolled his eyes. "Okay,"

The next morning was quiet. Sean and Marc weren't there when I woke up. I had a feeling they went to go work on the car so I didn't pay too much mind to it. But I still would rather have Sean tell me exactly where they went so I would know. I got up and walked into the living room. Avio was sleeping on the floor and Ziggy was on the couch. Swapped much?

Ziggy saw me and ran over wagging his tail. He jumped up on me and boy was he heavy. "Hi puppy dog." I said petting his head and pushing him off of me. I checked my phone and the time said 9:13. Why were they out so early? I walked into the kitchen and looked for the pancake mix. Pancakes were my favorite thing to make and Sean loved when I made them, too. I liked when Sean approved of what I did. It made me feel nice. Like I was being accepted or doing something good.

I started to make the pancakes and decided to make toast too. How was my mom holding up? With her baby missing? How was my sister? What about my dad? Was anyone out there looking for us? Were the others safe? How many people survived? I started thinking about stuff again. What would happen when Marc left? Sean wouldn't have to pretend he cared about me anymore and the girlfriend boyfriend act would come to an end.

He wouldn't call me baby anymore, he wouldn't be nice to me anymore, he wouldn't kiss me behind the ear anymore, he wouldn't hold my hand. He would mislead me for as long as the boys were there, and then break my dumb ass heart. I shook my head and finished the food. Ziggy was following me around everywhere I went. Wagging his tail. I gave him some lunch meat from the fridge. Avio woke up and walked into the kitchen.

He looked at me with sorrow, and kept a distance. But I smiled at him and pointed to the plate at the end of the table. He smiled, too, and sat down. "So Avio," I said as he did so. "How old are you?" Avio fixed himself in his seat and cleared his throat. "I'm 13." he told me. I nodded. "So Marc and them are your brothers?" I questioned. "Not real brothers. Marc found each one of us and took us in. Avis and Travis are real brothers but otherwise we are just brothers by heart." I nodded.

"And Ziggy?" I question. "Oh, Ziggy's my best friend. I found him when I was younger and it took a lot of begging but I finally got Marc to let me keep him." I smile. "Cute." I say. Avio starts to eat his food. "So, are they always mean to you?" I ask. "Not all the time. I mean, they're older so they leave me out a lot. But mean? Only sometimes. Lately, they've been acting really weird." he says.

"Like how?"
"Well, if you saw, Marc is really strict. He scares me. He'll make us do work if we act out and so we never misbehave in front of other people. That's something they've never done before. Marc has a strong belief about how women should be treated and we all obey his rules about it." I listened closely to what Avio was saying.

"And I've just seen all of the. Act so...weird." He told me. I grabbed him a glass of apple juice and put it next to him. "Thank you." he said. I nodded. "What are some weird things they've been doing?" I asked. "Uh, at home I've like walked in on them...ya know..." I thought for a moment about what he was saying. "Jerking off?" I asked. he nods. "All in the same room?" I say making a disgusted face.

"No! No, no no. Separate." He laughs. I laugh, too. "Oh, cuz I was going to say yes that is weird. But you do know that all boys do that, right?"
"Yea but not my brothers. They might have done it but not as much as they started doing it. " I raised an eyebrow. "And they only use to have sex with girls who were their girlfriends because that's how Marc raised us but when Marc isn't home, they bring home random girls to have sex with. And I've never seen the same girl twice unless she was with a different one of my brothers."

I mean, a lot of guys do that but if he said they weren't raised that way, hey, I guess it's weird. "Well, did you tell Marc?" I asked sitting down and eating my food. "No, my brothers would kill me." Avio took a nice gulp of his juice.

"Avio, you can't not do what's right because you're scared your brothers will hate you. Because now s-" I stopped to rephrase. "My boyfriend hates you. And I think you'd rather have your brothers get temporarily mad at you than to my boyfriend wanting to kill you all the time." I told him. Calling Sean my boyfriend felt nice. The words slipped out like it wasn't even a lie. It didn't feel like a lie. It felt right.

"But I love my brothers. They're all I have. if I lose them, I don't know what I'd do." he said looking down. "Let me tell you. You're brothers aren't going to stop caring about you. Something could seriously be wrong with them and you telling Marc would help them not do what they did to other girls. You need to tell your brother." I said. Avio nodded.

Sean and Marc walked into the house a little sweaty. I gave Sean a slight glare. "Good morning, baby." Sean said walking over to me. He kissed me behind the ear and it almost made me forget I was mad at him. "Mm." I said rolling my eyes. "Don't be like that." He whispered as he sat next to me at the table. "Marc, that plate's for you." I said pointing to the one next to Avio. "Aw, thank you Ari." he said sitting down.

Sean didn't need to be told which plate was his. He was already eating.

A/N

Where do you guys live? I live in Oakland, California - U.S.