Teaching Nostalgia [Gumlee]

Chapter 14

"Flame, I swear to glob, you better open this door in three secon- Oh hey, Pheebs!" I was waiting impatiently at the family's door for Flame to answer, but instead his sister did. She had her cell phone in her hand and a sucker in her mouth. Her orange dyed hair was pulled back in a messy bun and her face showed no emotion besides moody-teenage-girl attitude. She didn't have any makeup on which made her freckles prominent and she was dressed in comfy clothes, which were the exact opposite of what she usually wore to school. Essentially, she looked like a completely different person. A person who was about to crawl into bed and sleep for 10 plus years, to be exact.

"What are you doing here?" She asked after looking me up and down and making a popping sound with her sucker.

"I was supposed to call Flame about something but I decided I'd just show up unannounced instead." I smiled. She gave me another glance up and down and walked back inside the foyer without shutting the door.

Less than a second later Phoebe was screaming up the stairs. "PHINEAS! YOUR EMO BOYFRIEND IS HERE!" I'm going to take a wild guess and assume that's me. Not much longer I heard footsteps running down the stairs.

"What the fuck are you on about?" A deep, unmistakable voice said to his sister before yanking the door completely open. "Oh, it's you! Come on in, man!" Flame smiled brightly and pulled me inside. I noticed Phoebe roll her eyes out of the corner of my eye. "Mom and the twins are taking a nap, let's go to the basement," Flame motioned with his hand before roughly shoving his sister's shoulder, who was scrolling on her phone. "That also means you should shut your big ass mouth before I shut it for you."

"Fuck you," she cursed. "I'll do what I want."

"You keep sayin' that. But don't come cryin' to me when Mom beats your ass for waking her and the babies up." Phoebe just rolled her eyes and walked up the stairs, her eyes oh her phone the entire time. Flame shook his head and walked further into the large, messy house, me following behind. We passed through the living room where three more tan, blonde haired boys of different ages were playing video games on a large screen.

"Hey, Marshall," they all greeted in unison, not taking their eyes off the TV.

"Hey, Phoenix. Hi, Phillip. Hi, Phoebus. Watcha playin'?" I asked, watching their gameplay.

"Call of Duty," the second oldest of the three, Phoenix, who was eight, said.

"And I'm winning!" The 11 year old Phoebus shouted proudly with a smile.

"No, I'm winning!" Little Phillip squeaked.

"Hush! You're not even playing!" Phoebus scolded the five year old who was pushing random buttons on an unplugged controller. Soon enough the three siblings were arguing.

I laughed to myself. "I'll see you guys later," I said and went to go find Flame. He was in the kitchen, hoarding a bunch of junk food in his arms.

"Get the door," he mumbled through a bag of chips between his teeth. I opened the door to the finished basement and followed behind Flame who kept cursing every time he dropped something down the carpeted stairs. Once we were down stairs, he threw all the snacks on the table by the couch and plopped himself down. I dove right next to him and grabbed a box of Girl Scout cookies.

"Sooo. What'd you wanna talk about?" I asked with a mouthful of thin mints. Flame let out an exasperated groan and rubbed his face with his hands. I gave him a questioning glance. He sat there for a moment just staring into space.

Flame stood suddenly. "I can't do this sober, man." He walked into another room and came back about a minute later holding a familiar tin box.

"Duuude. We really doin' this tonight?" I watched in slight amusement as Flame pushed all the snacks off the table and replaced them with the box.