"There are at least seventeen ways this could have gone better, Luke. I'm literally counting them right now you moron," Gabriel said as he Luke and I looked at the destroyed garage.
"I just wanted to do something nice for his birthday!" Luke said, defending himself against what was sure to be a very big argument between his brother and him.
We stood in a line right outside of the garage looking in at what had started out as good intentions. North wouldn't tell anyone what he wanted for his birthday so Luke decided to organize and trick out his garage.... but it hadn't gone exactly according to plan. Gabriel was supposed to be painting the walls to look nice again, while Luke was in charge of organizing. I was here because I was supposed to be doing little stuff like sweeping and holding paint brushes. Somehow in the simplistic job that was supposed to end in North being a little less grumpy, had ended in mass destruction.
"Well at least the walls are painted," I said trying to sound optimistic.
This had been the first thing to go wrong.
Luke looked over at me from where he stood by the tool box. I could tell he was a little lost with as to how to organize it, so I decided to leave him alone to his confusion and join Gabriel instead- he at least knew something about painting the walls.
"What are we painting Meanie?"
He smirked, "I am painting the walls."
I rolled my eyes and dipped a finger into the pain, pulling it out and checking the color.. yep definitely the same blue that the bucket said it was, "No I mean are we doing a design or something?"
"Trouble there is no 'We' when it comes to painting the walls," he turned around and gaped, "Oh fuck no, that's a new shirt don't you dare get it dirty," he moved his hands while he talked, looking stressed.
But this as it turned out, wasn't a smart move. I watched as a big drop of paint flew threw the air and smacked Luke in the back of his head, some of it moving past him and onto the tools he was failing at organizing.
I pressed a hand over my mouth, but Gabriel didn't notice. He continued to lecture me about paint, and not getting my clothes dirty and how I should be away from stuff like paint. The paint from his brush flew, and splattered against the car that sat in the shop with it's hood up.
"Meanie!" I shouted in sync with Luke's panicked, "GABRIEL!"
It was then that Gabriel spun around to look at Luke, thinking something bad had happened. He was on a ladder, one we'd found from out back and apparently wasn't that stable. It rocked for a second. I reached out to steady it but it was too late, going down with a vengeance.
It smashed into the piece of board which held the paints, and three of the six cans went flying, head top over end... until they finally fell on the other side of the shop.. after coating everything in their wake with blue, red, and black. The other three cans fell to the ground and proceeded to dump paint as they rolled away.
Luke dropped the wrench he held in shock and ran over to help me aid Gabriel in standing. He tripped over a wire, which in turn caused a machine I didn't know the name of to fall over and somehow turn on. The machine's wire wheel started turning really fast, and as it fell it carved some impressive scratches into the car. Gabriel scrambled to unplug it.
I gulped softly and started backing out of the garage. To make matters worse, I tripped over something myself. I wasn't sure what I did, or how it happened, but a after I managed to uncover my eyes Gabriel and Luke were standing next to me. Looking at a newly colored shop, tools were all over the floor thanks to the wall of shelves having crashed down, and many of those tools hand dinged up the car really bad.
I pressed my hands to my thighs, "At least the walls are painted.."
Gabriel laughed humorlessly, "Fucking splatter pain and dust from all those tools you knocked over, Trouble."
I felt myself start to tear up, "He's going to hate us! And on his birthday too!"
Gabriel and Luke made eye contact over my head, and before I knew it I was being hauled up and the three of us were making a getaway.
"Don't worry trouble. He'll be mad at Kota, not us."
"How do you figure that?" I asked, sniffing as I tried not to throw up at all the jostling around from Luke running.
"Kota did it. And don't you dare say otherwise," he said, and then Luke dropped me down on the couch and threw a remote in my hand.
We played video games for no more than five minutes before North came out glaring. I felt my throat tighten.
"Idiots. Sang Baby. I'm going to go work on the car in my garage, you will be alright with these two?"
Gabriel rolled his eyes, "North, of course I'll be alright with Sang and Luke. I'm touched that you care so much about my safety."
That's it! I couldn't help myself.
"Owen did it!" I blurted and then slapped a hand over my mouth because that was so not the plan.
North turned around, a dark gleam in his eye as he sized up both boys on either side of me, "What the fuck is she lying about?"
Oops.
