Living With Delinquents (AKA "Louder Than Words") (Slow Update)

Chapter 4: Say Hi

Chapter 4

Color slapped Brandon’s filthy hand as it was making its way into her frittata. He grinned like an idiot and grabbed it anyway when an olive was catapulted from Color’s dish to create a dent on that stupid head of his and again Brandon ruined the shot by catching it with his mouth, keeping the moronic grin intact. Another one of Dad’s trait but was horribly distorted. Color hissed: “You voracious freak!”.

Dad cleared his throat, which came out more like a roar. Color opened her mouth ready to retort when she suddenly realized the usual laid-back family’s brunch had now been accompanied by the mysterious couple of teenagers, who were conveniently sitting  opposite her. Color gulped, unable to look at them openly, especially after that whole humiliating accident which in Haley’s word was “so awkward i’d rather go on a date with Hannibal Lecter”. ‘Damn you, Haley!’, Color cursed inwardly.

Knowing they couldn’t hear definitely not helping to ease the tension slowly building up either. Color was scared to use the “D” word as she thought it would be kind of insulting to the boys, despite the fact that she’d used that special term quite a lot when she tried to shut Brandon’s non-stop blabbering mouth up and occasionally lost it at Haley’s band practice.

But not to the boys. The thought of possibly upsetting them by using the D word terrified her because Color didn’t want to hurt their feelings in any means, even though she barely knew them. Needless to say, Color was enchanted by the twins, not just because of their striking good looks, but something else so captivating that radiated off of them like rays of sunlight.

“So,” Dad finally broke the deathly silence compressing the air, or at least that’s what Color felt. “Color, you haven’t been properly introduced to the boys just yet, right?”.

He turned to her and the poor child could literally taste 12 scrutinizing orbs bore into her as Color desperately tried to make herself smaller. Great, the conversation now spotlighted on her, which was the last thing she wanted right now. Color couldn’t stand being put on the spot. It was her biggest fear, well, a runner up to death, for as long as she could remember, being surrounded by people and having unwanted attention on oneself never failed to scare the crap out of this girl. Anti-social wouldn’t be the most accurate description of this condition, neither was shyness because Color did enjoy company and was quite liberal to speak her mind. For the time being it was known as “STD: Something To be Decided”. Also for the time being, the closest thing to a social life of hers was Color’s one-of-a-kind family, her passion for writing and an impressive number of imaginary friends that was larger than the cast of Law & Order.

“CoLOR?!” Dad called out in a “earth to Color” kind of tone, clearly because she’d been lost in her own thoughts again for the billionth time. This managed to drag Color’s excessive concentration on her half-stolen frittata to Phillip’s warm and eager smile, her bondi blue eyes turned soft into a desperate silent plea: “Please make this quick...”.

Phillip continued: “Welcome back. Ok, now I would like you to officially meet,” he gestured to the guys “Juney and Boran Radke.” Dad never pointed out exactly who was who, obviously because he was having a hard time distinguishing the two, judging by a confused look that flashed through his eyes in a millisecond. As common courtesy, Color looked up and smiled at them, concentrating solely on their hair. Again Dad spoke, but this time he gestured – literally with his hands – spelling out each word: “This is C-O-L-O-R, my daughter.”

Color looked at Dad in awe. That was so cool! It made Color want to learn how to sign though Phillip was struggling with the language. Turning back to the boys, she could see Juney and Boran were beaming at her and the one in the black sweater started to move his hands: ~ It’s a beautiful name ~.

Color cocked her head to the side, clueless to what he’d just done. She turned to Phillip and he just shrugged: “Don’t look at me. I just learned the basics.” Switching her gaze back to Juney/Boran, she saw his smile was even bigger, showing off some of his adorably crooked teeth. Out of the corner of Color’s eyes, she could see the other Juney/Boran just rolled his eyes, clearly perturbed. Then being a meticulous observant as she was, Color noticed some distinct differences between the twin. The friendly one in black sweater had a more slender outline as well as a lovely face and as mentioned before, charming smile with adorable crooked teeth. While the other in button up shirt was giving off kind of a cold masculine vibe with his just-a-bit-more well-built body, mostly from his relatively squarejaw. Also black-sweater’s hair was slicked to the left and button-up’s was slicked to the right. Interesting...

“Oh, I forgot. You three are the same age.” Dad chirped, looking at the three teenagers. “You guys may hit it off.”.

“What are the chances?” Haley scoffed, eyeing Color devilishly. “Dad, I didn’t know that they’re all... how old are you again?” She asked Color, making her huffed in annoyance.

“Hale, stop it.”. Mom patted her on the head, then whispered so loud the family could all hear: “17.” Color frowned. Everyone knew Color and her mom couldn’t whisper to save their lives. Then Lana continued: “Phil, I didn’t know that either. We also haven’t been properly introduced to the boys. Let’s get to know more. Why don’t you start, Pup?”. She gestured to a startled Color.

There's a picture of Papa Phil on the side.

He is my father figure - rugged but kind, frank but loving and has a struggling sense of humor :)

I like him the most in the story...

*flash back of painful childhood story*

I love that you've enjoyed the story till this far. Stay tuned for more ;D