The Exchange

Chapter 6

"Okay, smoothies. Take two. Action," Blaine said.

This time, I was the one who pressed the button. We didn't need any more of a mess to be made, and Blaine's middle name was Disaster. Actually, it was Christian, but that didn't have as good of a ring to it as Blaine Disaster Jacobs.

I poured the smoothies into a few glasses.

"I'll take this one to Arti," Blaine said as he picked up one of the glasses. "I should probably apologize to her."

"Why?" I asked.

"I was a little bit of a jerk to her while I was celebrating my victory, and I feel kind of bad."

I put a pink straw into Arti's smoothie. "That's nice of you. But I don't think you have anything to apologize for."

"It never hurts to say you're sorry. I'll go find her."

He never apologized to me, but I supposed that was because I wasn't as cute as Arti. It was difficult being a solid nine and a half compared to a ten sometimes, but it was the price I paid for having Arti around.

I watched him leave the kitchen as I put straws into the other glasses. One for me, one for Blaine, one for Matt, and none for Viktor Whatever His Last Name Was. Bye.

"Are those smoothies?" Melissa asked from behind me. Her footsteps were quieter than a ninja mouse doing sign language, and I didn't even notice she was there until she spoke.

"Yeah, for my friends and me, but what are you doing down here? Don't you want to play with the girls?" I asked.

"I was, but then I got kicked out of the house by Natalie for being a Nazi sympathizer." She brushed her hair out of her face and crossed her arms. "So now I have to live in the wilderness."

"Seriously, what is that kid watching on TV?" I asked.

"I think that one's from The Sound of Music."

I laughed. "Well, lucky for you, you found a smoothie in the wilderness." I handed her my smoothie. "Don't tell the others."

Her eyes lit up. "I won't. I promise." She held her finger up to her lips and nodded.

I knew that I wasn't supposed to pick my favorite siblings, but I always loved Melissa more than anyone else. She was the only person I would imagine giving my smoothie to. I loved Matt, Natalie, and Leah too, but Melissa's sweetness made her stand out from the rest of us obnoxious Jaynes.

"Let's split it," she said, reaching for the cabinet on her tiptoes. She pulled out a worn, yellow plastic cup with her name written in an almost-cursive font on it. Natalie and Leah had similar ones in blue and purple, but they rarely used theirs in favor of more adult-looking plastic cups. She carefully poured half of the smoothie into her cup, and I placed a straw in it as the finishing touch.

"Classy," she commented, then took a sip.

Blaine came back into the kitchen, a scowl on his face.

"Where was she?" I asked.

"She was hiding in your closet with Viktor comforting her as she talked shit about me." He looked at Melissa. "Oh, shit. Sorry about my language."

"It's okay," Melissa said. "I've heard Matt and Amanda say worse."

"What was she saying about you?" I asked.

"I mean, it wasn't exactly about me, but, like, she was upset about something."

I covered my eyes with my hands for a moment, then looked at him again. "What was she saying?"

"That all guys are stupid, selfish and annoying and mean. I mean, come on."