Rule Four // c.h

99 Bottle of Beer On The Wall

"There's my nephew!" Jake says, picking up Carter and tossing him into the air.

"Hey, be careful with him." I say as I go around and finish picking up Carter's toys for him. He had been in the middle of cleaning up when Jake and Ella arrived at the apartment. "Kids aren't meant to be thrown." Jake makes a face at me, Carter against his side in his arms.

"Yes they are otherwise what's the point." I nearly flip him off but Ella takes Carter from her husband.

"The point is that they're supposed to be the future. How's my little guy?" She asks Carter, her voice rising an octave as she talks to him.

"Good!" He exclaims, hugging her tightly and making Ella laugh.

"Where's my asshole of a roommate?" Jake asks. Ella and I both hush him and Ella even goes as far as to hit him for cursing, which Carter laughs at.

"You're an asshole, asshole." Calum says, appearing in the hallway, beer in hand. I glare at him a little too but Calum and Jake are having a stare off. "How are you jerk?" They hug each other once they're close enough and Jake eyes his beer a little weird.

"Drinking without me? That's pretty fuckin rude."

"Jake." I say indignantly. "My god, I need a swear jar in this house." I grumble, giving up with the toys.

"Aw he's not gonna repeat what we say. Are ya little man?" Jake holds out his fist to my son, asking for a fist bump. Carter isn't too young to understand what he wants. Jake actually taught him what a fist bump was when he was three and Carter loves Jake so much, he remembers what it is.

"Yeah Uncle Jake!" Carter exclaims, hitting his own fist against my brothers. I watch Jake grin before gesturing to him as if to say, See? Nothing to worry about.

"First of all, Carter is only four and probably doesn't understand what he agreed to. Secondly, you swear too much as it is and you should learn not to do it around children."

"They're gonna learn eventually." Jake argued. "Might as well start them young." He turned to Calum as Ella came to stand next to me, by the couch. "Now are you gonna be a jerk and not get me a beer?" He asked him. I rolled my eyes as the two of them began to head to the kitchen, throwing insults at one another. Ella still had Carter in her arms and she turned to me with a slight frown on her face as she adjusted the position of shrug arms.

"What?" I asked quietly.

"It's not even noon yet." I knew what she was saying without her having to say it. What was bugging Calum and why was it bugging him so much that he felt the need to drink before noon?

"It's just one beer." I lied, recalling how Calum had already tossed away his first bottle before grabbing another from the fridge. When Calum came home from work yesterday, I was surprised to see that he had the beer case in his hand. He explained that it was for him and Jake but... I didn't believe him and that scared me. I decided not to say anything though. I wasn't going to pry, he's my husband and if he has something to tell me... He would tell me. We promised to always be honest with each other once we were married and so far, we had kept that promise.

"Okay." She says softly, smiling at me. "How's my favorite sister-in-law?" She asks with a grin. I laugh.

"Like I keep telling Mali, I'm your only sister-in-law." Ella laughs.

"I know. It's just really nice to officially call you that. It used to freak Jake out when I called you my sister before we were engaged." I shook my head, laughing as I recalled the memory. The first time Ella had called me her sister it had been completely casual but it threw Jake off balance.