My brothers off limits // Kellic

Maybe it was just a crush

January 4

Julian and Victor work together. They graduated in robotics engineering and made a great duo, building up complex robots together. Every week, Victor shows up and that guy catches Kellin's eyes.

There have been quite long weeks that Kellin has been putting his eyes on that tanned guy. So he decided to act up. He got in Jullian's workroom. The room is full of weird stuff, Kellin just knew it was nerd stuff that makes machines.

"Get out, you can't play on my computer, we are working." Julian was three years older than Kellin, and in his head, Kellin was still 13 years old.

"Why are you so mean? I'm such a nice brother." Kellin sat on a random chair, leaving the door open. "I'm not a child anymore, I won't ruin your things."

"You are 21 and act like a three-year-old baby, get out before you break something." Julian looked at him.

"Hi." Kellin stopped by Vic's side, looking at the screen that showed lines and lines of code that Kellin couldn't even comprehend the basics.

"Hey." Vic smiled at him. He had only seen Julian's younger brother from afar.

"Leave him alone. He needs to pay attention." Julian was building the mechanical part of the robot.

"It seems very complex." Kellin leaned closer to Vic.

"But I'm used to it." Vic took a look at the guy, then got his attention back to the coding.

"What's your name?" Kellin asked something he already knew just for the sake of talking.

"Julian has never talked about me?" Vic faked being surprised and he turned to look at his friend.

"Stop pretending, Kellin." Julian stopped whatever he was doing on the robot. "You know who he is."

"I know?" Kellin played pretend.

"My name is Victor Fuentes." Vic stretched on his seat.

"I'll call you Vic." Kellin saw the menacing glare he got from his brother.

"You won't call him anything." Julian took Kellin by the wrist and pulled him out of the bedroom, closing the door. "Leave us alone and stop being a child. Why did you come live with me? Just to bug me? You should have stayed at our parents' house."

"I came to study. Did you think only you can do college?" Kellin felt a bit hurt by his brother's words but he did like was used to and played pretend.

"So go study in your bedroom instead of pestering me." Julian went back to his workroom.

It left Kellin a bit down but he just tried to brush it off and went to his bedroom. Sometimes he regrets having decided to live with his brother but near their parent's house there were no universities and they wouldn't let him live alone. As they say, Kellin is too inconsequential to live on his own. He went to his bedroom, but as he already knew, Julian would go get a snack so he left the door open and laid on his bed, paying attention to the noises. After nearly three hours, Julian finally went downstairs.

"Are you already back?" Victor asked without looking at the door.

"I am," Kellin said.

"Oh." Vic looked at him. "Hi."

"Hi." Kellin sat near Vic. "How can you tolerate Julian for hours and not want to kick his ass?"

"He's not that bad, just a little grumpy." Victor relaxed on the chair.

"You can say the truth, I know it all. He is unbearable." Kellin looked at the screen in front of Victor. "Whatcha doin'?"

"We are building a robot, using deep learning that works like a brain, so you can say that it will be a very smart robot. It can learn and do more than it was programmed to." Victor knew Kellin had low to zero information on that kind of thing so he explained it the easy way.

"Aaah." Kellin smiled a little while nodding, "It's not rocket science. Nice." He looked at the door. "Every time I ask Julian what he's doing he says that it's rocket science but nothing looks like a rocket to me. Liar." He crossed his arms.

"Who's the liar?" Julian asked as he entered the bedroom.

"You." Kellin looked at him. "I thought you were an astronaut but you're just a loser."

"Get out." Julian put a plate with toasts on the table near Victor and pulled Kellin's wrist away when he was going to take one. "I told you to get out." He pulled his younger brother out of there.

"You're such an idiot." Kellin walked away. He went downstairs to make toast for himself. "There were enough toasts for them if I took one." He was pissed at his brother. It got even worse when he saw there was no more bread. So Kellin just drank some water and went back to his bedroom.

Once Julian and Victor finished, it was already dinner time. They went downstairs, ready to go out.

"Where you goin'?" Kellin asked when he got near them.

"Not to the playground." Julian put on his coat.

"Where are you going?" Kellin looked at Vic, waiting for a serious reply.

"To have dinner." Vic didn't understand why Julian didn't reply of goodwill.

"You're not going with us," Julian told him before his younger brother could say something else.

"And will I stay hungry?" Kellin cocked his head to the side, knowing very well Julian hates it.

"Cook," Julian said halfheartedly and walked out. "Come on Victor."

"Sorry." Vic smiled at Kellin before closing the door and going away with his friend.

"Jerk." Kellin put on an angry expression. "He's such a dumbass. Why can't I be with them?" He went to the kitchen to check on what he could eat. It ended up that he ate instant noodles because he was too unhappy to cook a real meal. Kellin went to sleep thinking about Victor and those smiles. Pretty and sincere smiles. In the end, he had a smile on his face. Maybe it was just a crush, maybe he was falling in love. He can't tell the difference.