A slow fall

Chapter 37 - Lucas

    Caleb jumped so hard I worried he'd fall over. Whether it was from Adam's sudden appearance, the ridiculously loud volume of his brother's voice, or the fact he only missed being smacked in the face by an inch I wasn't sure.

What I did know was that he was happy.

He launched himself into Adam's arms as soon as his brain finished buffering. His smile was wide, genuine, and his laughter bounced off the kitchen walls. The room watched in silence for a minute, before leaving the brothers to reconnect without prying eyes.

I squeezed past them and went to stand beside the others, offering them a semblance of privacy. Ollie took this as the chance he'd been waiting for, "We can carry on drinking now, right?"

"No one said you had to stop." I pointed out, picking up my partly finished drink. The smell reached my nose as soon as I lifted it, bad mistakes and poisonous liquor hidden under the fizz cola.

"Yeah, but everyone kept telling me we had to wait."

Rosa rolled her eyes, an expression exaggerated by the heavy makeup around her eyes. "It was like five minutes, stop acting like you're dying."

"I'm starting to sober up!" He argued.

To that everyone had a rebuttal, a chorus of: "That's not even possible," and "It was literally five minutes," and "You might be an alcoholic." Ollie floundered, opening and closing his mouth before grabbing the bottle of vodka and taking a sip straight from the bottle.

I wasn't too sure why he did that. Or why anyone would want to. An act of defiance? The thought had me shuddering slightly content with the mix I had in my hands. I reached for a card from the Kings Cup circle to appease him. When I turned over a seven, my hand shot up into the air, a motion quickly followed by those who could see.

Ollie, still distracted by the bottle of vodka, was last to copy. The punishment, as with most drinking games, was more drink.

"I wasn't ready." Ollie complained halfheartedly before taking a large gulp of his drink.

"Well, next time pay attention." I said, though I wasn't much better. Even then my eyes kept drifting to the corner of the room. To the two boys reminiscing like they'd spent a lifetime apart while laughing with the familiarity of people who'd known each other their whole lives.

It reminded me why I'd always longed for siblings. How I always envied the relationships they had with each other. The hours spent around the Wilkins brothers made me privy to their bond; The love, oftentimes disguised as hate, they so freely shared with each other. At some point I realised that love didn't come with a blood requirement.

As if sensing my gaze, Caleb glanced my way, Adam's eyes following soon after. They both still wore smiles, so bright they lit up the room more than the dim fairy lights hanging along the walls. Even after being caught out, it took me a beat too long to turn away from them. From him. Adam turned back, hunched closer conspiratorily and I knew I was going to regret telling him anything.

"Oi," Erik nudged me to gain my attention, brandishing an ace proudly in his hands, "waterfall. Get ready."

"Wait," Adam easily slotted himself back into the circle, Caleb by his side. In between the two of us.

He stood close. With ten people squeezed tight around our small kitchen table, there wasn't any other way to fit, but Caleb's body was pressed into mine more than I thought coincidental. Then again, I had a habit of jumping without thinking things through.

I handed him a cup, and when our hands brushed, so brief and accidental, my heat fluttered. Yeah, I really did jump without thinking, and boy am I falling hard. But when I looked at him, his soft smile and glittering eyes I wasn't even surprised that it had happened. That I'd let him so easily weave his way under my skin without even trying.