The Business Trip

CHAPTER 8 - Brotherly Chats

*Marshall’s POV*

'Uh, unf, what the..?' were the first things to cross my mind as I awoke, I wasn’t quite awake yet and felt slightly dazed and deluded. Athena was curled up a few inches away from me, her long hair was covering most of the pillow and yet somehow she still looked perfect.

I shifted closer to her; I wrapped my arms around her and felt her stir slightly under my touch. She made some sort of soft sound and drew herself into my body,

“Marshall...” she whispered softly. She sat up; her hair flowed down her back like waves of chocolate.

She reached over me and fumbled around for something on the bedside cabinet, as she drew herself back to her part of the bed I tried to figure out what the sleek black object was, my brain was still not quite working and it took me a little too long to work out it was a TV remote.

I looked around the room slightly puzzled; there was no fucking TV in the room! I then noticed at the foot of the bed, there was a kind of hidden compartment and I glanced at Athena, she smirked at the look of bemusement on my face. She hit a button on the remote and a rather large sleek TV rose from the foot of the bed. Athena then flicked onto a news channel,

“So you like watching news then?” I said hoping to strike up some conversation; I wasn’t an avid watcher of TV, only football and basketball when it was on.

“Yeah, I like to know what’s happening in the world,” was her response and she turned back to the screen.

I paused for a few moments and then looked over at the clock. The LED read 10:35am. I began to shift awkwardly, I didn’t really wanna leave, but I needed to get home.

“If you gotta get going its fine, I understand, your family comes first,” Athena said. I slithered out of the ridiculously huge bed, and pulled on my Calvin Klein boxers. I continued to dress; she began to dress herself as well. Around 5 minutes later we were both reasonably decent.

Athena walked over to the door and unlocked it, before I left she tugged my hoody strings slightly and I embraced her, she was only just smaller than me, admittedly I’m not the tallest guy in the world but I felt kinda special as our lips touched lightly.

“Yo, lemme take you out somewhere to eat later, it can be like a bit of an add on to our date yesterday,” I said.

“Sure thing just let me know what time and I’ll be ready,” She smiled softly at me as I walked down the carpeted corridor. I needed to speak to Nate.

I arrived home; I parked my car in its usual spot in the garage and then walked into the house tossing my keys gently onto the table. I heard someone stir in the living room; I popped my head round the door as I walked by looking for my younger brother.

“Dad!” a voice rang out, it was Hailie, even though she was 17 she would always run up to me and hug me tightly, it had become routine and there just weren’t the words to describe how much I loved her.

“Hey, how are you? Where’s Nate by the way?” I asked her. She grinned at me and nodded towards the kitchen and then made herself comfortable on the sofa again.

“Thank you baby”, I called as I walked away. “Love you Dad!”

As I walked in the kitchen I found my younger half brother. His head was in the fridge and there were various fitness magazines scattered across the granite table, I picked up a bottle that was in the middle of the mess. Protein shakes? I never understood that kind of stuff, it never appealed to me at all.

“Why hello there oh silent one,” was my brother’s attempt at a witty greeting.

 “Oh hey Nate, Mr. Protein Shakes are gonna get me buff,” I responded. “Hope the girls weren’t too much trouble last night?”