A Royal Mess

Chapter Twelve

Ari busts into my room without even knocking. He is clearly aggravated about something. By the look on his face, he is pissed that I am smoking right now. It's not something I do often. I find smoking to be disgusting actually, and extremely bad for you. I don't particularly want to die with black lungs. Every now and then though, I light one and I smoke it down the very last inch that I can. 

"What the fuck do you think you are doing?" Ari demands. He storms across my room and pushes one of my windows open. The smoke drifts towards the fresh air to pollute it. "First, you completely blow off school. Second, you can't pick your damn cell phone to let someone know that you are okay. And now, you are smoking...in the house!"

He snatches the bud from my hands and throws it out the open window. "What the hell, Ari? I wasn't done with that!"

"I don't give a damn!" he shouts. "You are acting like a spoiled little brat."

"Fuck you, Arington." I spit. 

He follows me out of my bedroom and down the stairs. I can basically feel his hot breath on my neck. I want to slap him across the face so hard that his entire head does a three-sixty degree turn. That would teach him to follow after me when I am pissed off about something. Probably not though. My brother tends to push people's buttons, and my button's are his favorite to push. 

I keep on my rampage all the way to Tayt's office. Not even bothering to knock, I push through the door with such force that the door hits the back wall with a bang. A picture from of Tayt shaking hands with some businessman falls off of the wall and crashes onto the floor. Glass shatters everywhere. 

"What the hell is going on?" Tayt asks. He is on his feet now, storming towards us. "There better be one good excuse to as why you two are storming into my office and breaking my shit. So what is it this time?" Ari and I both start yelling at the same time. This only pisses our older brother off more. "Enough!"

Even though I am ill with Ari, that doesn't stop me from ducking behind him. I am gripping onto his forearm like my life depends on it. Tayt is a scary person when he isn't mad, so anyone can imagine just how terrifying he is when he is angry. He looks like he is ready to strangle the both of us. 

"Aspen, what did Ari do?" he questions. Ari opens his mouth to interject, but Tayt holds his hand out to shut him up. "Do not speak a word until Aspen is finished speaking. Do you understand me?" Ari nods his head yes with a scowl on his face. "Thank you. Aspen, you may defend your case now."

I roll my eyes. "Ari busted into my room and then proceeded to call me a 'spoiled brat'."

"Ari, is this true?" 

"I didn't call her a 'spoiled brat', I said she was acting like one." Ari defends himself. "Aspen ditched school today. I tried calling her a billion times to see if she was okay. She ignored every single one of my calls, so you can only imagine how worried I was. I couldn't even focus on my actual school work, because I was so worried about her. And then, when I get home, I find her upstairs in her room smoking a cigarette like it's no big deal."

If Tayt wasn't ready to fly off the handles before, he sure is now. Screw you, Ari. "You did what? Aspen Rose! You cannot just skip school because you don't feel like it, or you are just in one of your moods. School is there so that you can get an education. You don't get to pick and choose when you go. At least tell Ari next time so one of you can get their high school diploma. And smoking? Are you serious? Do you know how bad smoking is for you?"

I hate when these two idiots are right and I am wrong. 

"I'm sorry." I mumble. "To both of you."