Remi's Choice

Chapter 1

Travis

Then

The moment I hear my mother's words in the kitchen, I jump out of bed and storm down the hallway. "Did you just say—?" I start to demand as I stalk into the kitchen where she and our neighbor Maggie are about to take a shot, but my mother puts her hand up before I can finish.

"Yes, I said Remilynn will be here in twenty-minutes, and I want you boys on your best behavior."

"That's bullshit. We had a deal!"

"Language!" she says then downs her shot. "And this is exactly why the deal is off."

"But you said—"

"The deal was, if you could stay out of trouble, I might trust you to be in charge the next time I needed a sitter." She sucks on a lemon wedge then laughs at the grimace on Maggie's face.

"That was one time," I argue. "And it wasn't even my fault."

"Two days after our deal, Travis." She holds up two fingers. "Two days and the cops were at my door with you. I'm sorry, but I don't trust that if I leave you in charge I won't get back to this house burnt to the ground."

The doorbell rings and Tula, my mom's Chihuahua, goes crazy barking. I glare at my mom then glance at Maggie who does a little pout before opening her compact to check her makeup.

"Fuck!" I mutter as I storm out of the kitchen.

My mother hollers something else about my language and how one of these days I'm going to trigger one of her epileptic seizures. She's always used this same guilt grenade, yet not once have her seizures ever been triggered by anything in particular. They're completely random. Maggie then follows up with something about teens and me getting over it.

This was beyond acceptable. It was one thing when Remi was in high school and I was still in middle school for people to know she was babysitting me and my siblings. But I'm a sophomore now, almost seventeen, and she's a senior in the same high school. I've shot up about a foot taller than her in the last year. I probably outweigh her by at least forty pounds, and she's coming over again to babysit me?

My mother insists it isn't me she's watching. She's hired to keep an eye on my younger brothers, who I'm not trusted to look after myself. But it still feels like she's here for me too. If Remi wanted to be catty about it, she could tell everyone at school that she babysits me.

Luckily, it's the only thing I can breathe easy about. So far, Remi hasn't been like that. Still, I'm certain she's shared with someone, her sister or best friends, that once again she's been asked to babysit the De Luca boys. Which includes me.

The only good thing about having her as my sitter is I get to be around her and make her squirm. Despite my being almost two years younger than her, I know I'm far more experienced than her in every way.

She may be the adult in this particular situation, but I'm the adult of the two when it comes to everything else. With a mother who parties several times a week and gets home too smashed to notice me gone all night, I've done plenty of reckless partying and had my cherry popped several years ago. I've also popped a few virgins myself. And I'm certain Remi is one. I can practically smell her sweet throbbing cherry every time I get close enough.

Because I just know by her sweet and timid demeanor that she still hasn't given it up to anyone, Cherry's been my special name for her for years. At first I told her it was because of her red hair. But eventually I let her in on why I really call her Cherry. I'll never forget how blood red her face went when I explained my special name for her. At first, she balked at the name, ignoring me when I used it. But over the years I've begun to think my private name for her might turn her on. She even answers to it now.