If Only Being Switched at Birth Was Easy

/6/ Feisty

"A, wake up," I heard a voice demand nicely. I opened my eyes and saw Nikko sitting by my bed. "Good morning."

I groaned. I was tired as hell.

"Our grandmother is coming over at noon, so get ready," Nikko said. It took moments after him leaving for me to hop out of bed and dash across the hall to where I left King. I opened the door and looked around the room to find it empty. Suddenly, the door was closed and I was pinned to the wall.

"I told you not to mess with my shit and not to mess with me!" King roared at me. My heart sped up, immediately.

"What was I supposed to do?!" I yelled back. "You were so drunk that Ryan had to call me!"

"Why should you care!? Just leave me be!" he retorted.

"You of all people should know that I'm not gonna let you be drunk with a knife. You're glad Connor took it from you," I said in a lower tone than before.

"Why the f*ck did Connor have it in the first place?!"

"To give it to me."

"That f*cking jerk is just does shit to impress you!" he accused.

"Well it's not working," I responded. I looked down when it seemed like he calmed down. He released his grasp from my forearms and took a step back.

"Don't forget that I found it in your room," he whispered. I questioned him at first, but then knew what he was talking about. "Did you do anything?"

"No. I—" I was cut off when he raised my wrist into his observation and then dropped it after only finding scars from skating accidents.

"Good," he muttered.

"Why does it matter?" I asked him. His hair hung in his face as I tried to look directly into his eyes for his answer. He kept quiet and started backing up because he was never going to admit that he cared. He turned to the bed to collect anything that was his since he made it clear that he was starting to leave.

"Stay here," I said, shifting positions. He scoffed.

"Right," he laughed.

"Seriously."

He turned to me.

"Your new brother doesn't want me here. He doesn't want me around you at all. So why the hell would he want me to move in here?" he asked.

"Because maybe he thinks you're a better brother than he is," I shrugged.

"I'm no one's brother," he reminded. Not anymore...

"Well think of it this way," I started, "if you're here, you won't have to be in the foster house with people who don't give a shit about you or what you do. You won't have to hurt anymore."

"I don't hurt—"

"You know what I mean," I cut-off with my eyes closed in frustration.

"Fine, I'll stay," he whispered.

"What?" I asked in a mumble that I couldn't even hear. He wouldn't repeat it though. He gave me one last look before walking past me, opening the door, and leaving.

***

I had been hanging around the penthouse all day, staying out of King's way even though he stayed in his new-founded room when he got back from sneaking into the foster house to grab his stuff.

"Look, in a little bit, my grandma is coming over, so—"

"I don't really care," King interrupted as I stood in the doorway of his room and he laid on his bed, shirtless as his shirt covered his face. I rolled my eyes and left. Odd enough, when I stepped into the living room, an old lady awaited. Of course she was the same one from the mall that King had run into.

"This is my granddaughter?" she asked. Was that supposed to be offensive? She walked over and examined me as if I was some kind of horse show. I produced a scowl on my face. "All this hair in your face and clothes draping your body—"

"If you don't like it then you can—"

"She's not like our Adriana," I heard Nikko mutter to interrupt me from my disrespectfulness. The "our" before my given name threw me off. I felt the barrier between our switched lives more with his statement than the lifestyle I was brought into.

"Obviously!" our grandmother exclaimed. I rolled my eyes.

"If you don't like it then you can—" I started to say again.

"AJ," Nikko hissed for me shut up. I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.

"I need to call Fabio..." granny said as she paced and looked at the ground.

"Fabio?" I mouthed to Nikko. He shrugged it off. Suddenly, she took off past me and my eyes widened when I remembered that King was in one of the rooms that way. I followed her and thanked the lord that she went into my correct room. She was looked through the very few clothes that I had hanging up.

"Don't you have any clothes other than these? This looks like a boy's room," she expressed.

"Grandma—" Nikko started to say.

"Look. Unlike you, I didn't grow up with all the riches—more so the rags, so I'm not sorry if I have clothes that will get me by because that's all my small foster home could afford!" I yelled to her. She was taken aback by my outburst, but I didn't care. "I'm not some prissy princess heiress that wears skirts and heels. I'm a tomboy. I like skateboarding and going out and—"

"Be. A. Lady," she spat before stomping out around me. Yeah. Right. I looked at Nikko and shrugged.

"Don't talk to her like that," he muttered before shoving shoulders with me and then walking off.

"Heavy shit," a voice commented from behind me. I rolled my eyes since I knew it was King.

"Shut up," I ordered before plopping down on my bed.

"You know, for a girl, you do have a little bit of clothes," he commented. I placed the pillow over my face.

"Does it seem like I care? Because I don't," I said. Most of the time, all I wore was my jeans and the hoodie. It was only summer times when I wore a tank top or band t-shirt due to the heat.

"I'm just saying because most girls have more clothes—"

"Am I 'most girls'?" I asked him, now looking at him directly. He didn't answer. "Exactly. I'm not. And what's it to you? Other than me and at school, you don't even see any girls with clothes on, so shut the f*ck up and leave me alone."

"Feisty," he commented, not taking anything offensive—like usual. I heard his phone start ringing and then there was a brief moment of silence for him to reply to them, before he addressed me. "Sam and I are going out tonight so don't wait up."

"Sam?" I asked. Who's Sam?

"Blonde hair, average height, kinda ditzy, big boobs hanging out of her shirt...?" he described. Oh...his new girlfriend.

"Have fun," I chimed. He winked.

"I'll try," he smirked before leaving.

I walked into the living room and saw Nikko on the house phone. He gave me a look from the corner of his eye before leaving out the back door to the pool or cabana. I looked around and laid my eyes on his open wallet. And before I knew it, I was taking the heavy leather wallet on my trip to the mall.