Bite Me

Chapter 6

"DAMIEN!" Roxanne screamed. The sheer volume of Roxanne's scream had Blaine and Zach racing down the stairs in a panic, fearing the worst. By the time they had both reached the kitchen Roxanne had thrown herself into a hug with the person stood on the doorstep: her eldest brother. Zach smiled at Damien, he'd heard of him and seen photos, so he recognised his face, but he'd never met him in person. It had been six years since Damien left home, Zach had only been with Roxanne for three so their paths had never crossed. On the other hand, Blaine stood frozen to the spot, his eyes wide, his mouth open in surprise. This surely meant trouble.

"Roxy, it's good to see you too, but I need to breathe, you're like a bloody leech!" A faint accent could be heard in Damien's voice, the tell-tale sign of 6 years away in some city or other. Roxanne couldn't quite pinpoint where it was from but made a mental note to ask later, listing everything she wanted to know in her head. Damien tried to pry his sister's arms away from him but to no avail, she wasn't letting go for anything. Zach laughed as he walked over and tried to help, eventually they managed to detach her with Zach restraining her to some extent so she wouldn't try to latch onto her brother again like her life depended on it. Roxanne calmed down enough so Zach felt he could ease up a little and be able to introduce himself properly.

"You must be Damien, I'm Zach, Roxanne's boyfriend. I've heard a lot about you so it's great to finally meet you." The two shook hands and smiled at each other. Zach was relieved that at least one of Roxanne's brothers appeared to like him straight away, it was hard enough to make Blaine come around. 3 years was more of a war than a persuasion. Roxanne had mentioned Damien quite frequently when they first got together, she told Zach all about her family and how much she had missed her brother since he'd left. She spoke of countless childhood memories the three siblings had, times when they would play pranks on each other and all the times they fought over petty things like whose turn it was to pick out the night's movie.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you too, and thanks for helping." Damien motioned towards Roxanne rolling his eyes, before turning his attention to Blaine. "Hey Blaine..." He would have said more but Blaine appeared to have not heard him. He had moved from standing in the middle of the room to leaning against one of the counters in the kitchen, his face void of emotion. Damien hesitated, unsure of how to deal with the situation, Roxanne noticed and tried to lighten the mood as best she could.

"I can't believe you're back! Where have you been? What have you been doing? Why didn't you visit, or at least call? We have to catch up, but do you want to put your stuff upstairs first?" Roxanne knew this would give her a scrap of time to try and get some answers from Blaine about his sudden mood swing. Damien looked at her and nodded, trying to smile. "Zach help him with his bags will you?" Zach moved swiftly to pick up what he could carry before walking ahead of Damien up the stairs and out of earshot. "Blaine what the hell is going on? Could you not at least pretend to be happy he's back? Are you even listening to me?" She snapped at him, waving her hand in front of his face causing him to focus on her and return from his far away thoughts.

"We have a problem." Blaine had waited a short while after Roxanne's question to say anything, and neither of them said anything after he'd finally responded, Roxanne unsure of how to continue after that blunt statement. The sound of footsteps and laughter made Roxanne realise she'd lost her brief chance for answers, she couldn't help being frustrated at Blaine for being so unpredictable.

"I'd have loved to have seen that." Zach tried to say whilst laughing as he appeared with Damien at his side. Roxanne looked at them both and rolled her eyes deciding against asking what they were on about, she would make them tell her later before she got paranoid about it. All she needed was for Damien to come home and instantly embarrass her in front of Zach, she was perfectly capable of doing that herself.