Spoiled and Broken

Mati

When the sun began to rise, three people were still awake. Two cousins and an artist. Each had their own reason, although the reason was all along the same line of their mind couldn't turn off long enough to fall asleep at the moment. So each occupied themselves in their own unique way. The artist had her laptop with her, using software on it to make artwork for a story idea she had. There was no guarantee that she would actually write said story, but it amused her to see the characters come to life on her screen through her ability. The older of the cousins was on his phone, debating going over and checking on the girls. He could see from the activity on his social media that he wasn't the only one awake, but he really didn't feel like moving at the moment. With someone sleeping with their head on his chest, he didn't want to move around to much. Then there was the younger of the cousins, who had her earbuds in and was listening to music while playing an online naruto game. From the tension in her jaw and the ferocity in which she was clicking the button, it could be made out that she was quite frustrated. And losing. With how loud the button was getting, it was a shock to everyone that the sleeping girl in the room wasn't woken up by the noise.

There was about another half hour of this, drawing, debating, and frustration, when there was a change. A knock on the door of the girl's room that caused Mati to get up from her spot on the couch bed and check the door. "Hey Fawny, let me guess, here to talk to Mantha?" She greeted him, the tall male not surprised that the relatively brilliant woman could guess his intentions on being there. At hearing the aggressive clicking coming from the bedroom, he had a pretty good idea as to what it was the girl was currently up to. "Let me guess, she started playing Naruto Online again?" Tam looked down at the girl at the door, an odd mix of amusement and irritation in his eyes about his question.

"She got herself back into it apparently. Come on in," Mati admitted, moving aside so he could make his way into the room.

Without hesitation, Tam came inside and grabbed a small cardboard container from his pocket. He made his way into the bedroom without bothering to knock. He knew that past sundown Mantha would typically only be in her oversized jacket and underwear, at most maybe a pair of shorts that were nowhere near long enough to fully cover her butt, however he had no worries about this since she was his cousin and anytime she stayed at his house, or vice versa, he had grown accustomed to it. Making sure she wasn't in the middle of a fight in the game, Tam carefully shut the laptop entirely on her and grabbed her hand so as to make sure she couldn't use the game as an excuse. "What the fuck Fawny!?" He heard her ask him, to which he just brought her over to the kitchen table and set the cardboard box on it. At her confused look, he rolled his eyes. "We haven't played cards together since before our great-grandma died, and she died over a year ago. Even if your rusty, it's still better than you locking yourself away."

There was a moment of silence before something crossed through Mantha's mind. "Tam, bringing me wasn't about your parents not wanting you to hook up with Victor, was it?"

"Oh come on, like my dad could give a shit about my sex life, and my mom is just glad I won't come home telling her I got a girl pregnant. And they both know I'm smarter than that anyway," Tam retorted, sitting at the table.

"Then why would you want me and my friends around instead of just a trip for you and your boyfriend?" The short girl sat across from him

"You tell me," he told her, shuffling the cards and handing them to her. "Your deal."

"My game or yours Tam? Although from the looks of it, I'm supposed to figure out your mind, so we're playing your game," she rolled her shoulders slightly before passing out the cards, already setting it up to be playing his favorite of rummy. She preferred tonk, it was shorter and easier to hold in her small hands, but Tam always was a sucker for long strategy games .