Since You Came

Ch. 25

"Warning. My little brother invited a friend over... They can get kinda weird."

I laugh, grabbing the food bags and my duffel bag from the trunk of her car. "I bet it's nothing I can't handle."

"Let's hope you're right," Mae agrees with a laugh. She grabs the remaining food bags and follows me to her front door. "They're both 14, so."

"That ought to be fun," I comment, a tone of sarcasm in my voice.

She grins and opens the front door for me. We walk in to two young boys playing Xbox in their family room.

When they hear us, their attention is drawn to where we stand, in front of the door, arms full of bags. Their eyes widen, and Mae's brother's friend gets a sly grin on his face. "Hello, ladies."

Mae groans. "She has a boyfriend, Aaron. Back off."

The boy, Aaron, frowns in response. Mae's brother laughs at his friend.

"This is Michael, by the way," Mae tells me, motioning to her younger brother. Michael offers me a wave.

"Hey, Michael. I'm Maddie," I tell him.

He nods, a small grin touching his lips. "I know."

"We can go set up shop in the basement," Mae says, adjusting her grip on one of the bags.

I nod once. "Okay," I say, following her down the stairs to her basement.

The lowest floor of the house was large, with an at-home theatre, ping-pong and pool table, and a small kitchen/bar area.

"There's also a hot tub outside if we ever end up deciding to do that," Mae tells me.

"Sounds fun," I respond, dropping my bags on a sofa against a wall.

Footsteps thump their way down the stairs. "What're you guys doing?" a boy's voice asks. Michael and Aaron appear on the bottom of the stairs.

Mae groans and scowls at her brother. "Leave us alone, Mike," she says, folding her arms across her chest.

Her brother frowns and sits on the couch beside my bags. "Why can't we hang out with you guys? All we'll be doing is watching movies."

"Nuh uh! We'll be doing a bunch of girl-stuff. Like girl-talk and stuff," Mae snarls, searching for a good excuse.

Michael laughs. "Come on, Mae. We'll just stay for the first movie, then we'll leave you two alone."

I offer Michael a smile and nod. "I think it'll be okay. Mae?"

Mae groans again and glares at the boys. "Fine."

I hear Aaron whoop from the side of the room. Moving to sit beside Michael, I say, "We have decided to have a Disney marathon."

Michael rolls his eyes. "Okay, maybe Aaron and I will leave you two alone."

I laugh, pulling out the movies I had brought from my bag. "We have Brave, Tangled, Finding Nemo, Toy Story..."

"The last two options are okay," Aaron comments, moving to sit beside Michael.

"We also have the ones you guys own," I tell Michael.

He nods. "Oh, yeah. We have some good ones. Some good violent ones, too."

"Violent Disney movies?" I ask, smirking. I push my bags away from me with my foot, stretching my legs.

Michael rolls his eyes. "No. Like zombie movies or war movies," he says, with a nod of agreement from Aaron.

"Well, you guys came down to join us, so we get to choose the movies," Mae says, folding her arms across her chest.