OVERRIDE

Chapter 8 Awkward Moments with our (older, I guess) Brother

Chapter 8

"So tell me," I began. "Why were you an infant for so long?!"

"My parents didn't want me to grow up." Shrugged Charlie. "They kept giving me microchips over and over again."

"That's crazy." I said. I tossed him a bath robe. "Here" I said, then turned around.

"Thanks" Charlie replied. He slipped on the bath robe and then said "okay".

I turned back around. He was sitting cross-legged on the couch.

"So, um, what do we do now?" he asked.

"Oh! Um, do you want to find your parents...or something?" This was quite an awkward conversation.

"No! I don't, actually. If I go back, my mother would chip me up..."

"Ah, I see." I said. I sized Charlie. He was very skinny, but very tall. His blonde hair now was light brown, and his eyes, well, they were still blue.

We sat there for quite some time in silence, none of us really knew what to do.

"You need some real clothes." I said, later. "Luckily, I know a guy that can help you."

"That would be nice" smirked Charlie. "So, um, Lia, right?"

I nodded.

"What's...erm...up?"

I sighed. "You need a job."

Charlie widened his eyes. "What?!"

"Once you get out of that bathrobe I'm getting you a job. The only condition for living with us is that you contribute to our income, since you're older than sixteen."

"Fine." agreed Charlie. 

"Lia!" Came the voice of Gracie, running in the apartment. 

"Hey, Gracie." I said, giving her a hug. I removed her backpack off her shoulders and tossed it onto the couch next to Charlie.

Gracie took one look at the grown Charlie, then screamed.

"Gracie!" I said, covering her mouth. "What's wrong with you?"

"There's a strange thing in our house!" she cried, pointing to him.

On the couch, he began to chuckle.

"That's um, Charlie, Gracie. Yeah, uh, he had a growth chip in him."

"What?!" she cried, widening her dark brown eyes. "How old are you now?"

"Seventeen." He replied.

"What the heck?!" Asked Gracie.

"Yeah, your sister was just as weirded out." He said with a smirk.

"He's going to still be staying with us, if that's okay with you." I said to her.

"Wow! I've got an older brother now!" Gracie cried, latching herself onto Charlie.

"Gracie!" I cried, surprised. I suppose she had the right idea though. We had a man to protect this family full of girls. With the amount of boys and men leaving to work for the government, it was a very rare thing nowadays at least, to have an older brother/fatherly figure.

"Whoa!" He laughed, hugging her back. "You're a sturdy one."

"Gracie," I began. "Where are Kara and Peyton?"

"School play tryouts!" said Gracie. "They'll take the taxi home."

"Hmm," I muttered. "I didn't know they had an interest in plays, what's it about?"

"Dictator Ricky Stevens' life."

Charlie and I exchanged looks for a second, then burst out laughing.

"What a loser!" I cried, my sides burning from laughing so hard. "He has to now have a play about him! WHAT a loser!"

"It's a musical, actually."

"AHAHAHAHAH!" I cried, practically dying of laughter. Charlie was just as bad too.

"So what are the girls trying out for?" I asked after I got myself back together.

"Their own parts."

Oh, right. Our family is a bit famous. Forgot about that.

"What?" asked Charlie, sincerely confused.

I faced him. "Stevens, and our father were college friends, they arranged their firstborn to get married, so I'm marrying Justin in about seven years. So, we're a little famous around here."

Charlie gasped. "I'm so sorry!" he cried. "You have to marry that jerk-faced idiot! Wow! He's an idiot!"

"You said that twice." said Gracie.

"Anyway. The government, so we think, staged a car accident to kill both of our parents so nothing could stop us from getting married. No one really knows why he wants us two together though."

"What an idiot."

"You've said that three times now." piped Gracie, again.

"So, yeah, I'm doomed."

"Wow."

"Peyton and Kara are both in the play, they're small parts, like only the day where we went to their mansion for Christmas a couple years ago after mom and dad's death. That's part of the play."

"Wow." said Charlie. "Your father's death is in the play?"

"It would be." said Gracie. "It's all part of the government's plan to rule the world."

"That's harsh." said Charlie. "Staged accidents, when they were friends. That's wrong."

I sighed. "I can't do anything about it though."

"Yes you can." said Charlie, standing up. "You can run."

I looked at him wide-eyed. "Why would I do that?"

"You won't have to marry that idiot."

"Charlie, you can't just leave the country! Especially me, the government would be after me in a heartbeat."

"You could try." he said.

"I don't want to leave my sisters."

"You could take them with you."

"I'm not going to risk their lives, just for my own."

"I'm just saying, all you have to do is make it out to the docks on the other side of the city. Get on a cargo ship, tell the captain where you want to go, preferably Europe, and he'll take you there."

I shook my head. "How on earth do you know this?"

"I've seen it been done before."

"So you've been near the docks, as an infant?"

"Yes, my dad lived there. I frequently visited him, that was, until he was lost at sea."

"Oh, I'm sorry." I said.

"Nah, it's fine. Mom thought I couldn't understand, but I could literally think like a seventeen year old, rather than a five year old, or whatever I was, I just didn't talk because I didn't want mom snapping another chip behind my ear, in fear if me actually growing up."

"Yikes." I said.

Charlie nodded. "I don't want to see her ever again!"

"Well, we're staying here." I said. "We're not leaving the country, we're staying right here where we belong."