Amongst Knights

Chapter 3

"You guys are being too harsh on your sister," Mrs. McGregor says.

"Harsh? How were we being harsh?" Owen asks.

"You guys are being the Gestapo on your little sister," Mrs. McGregor says with a pointed look.

Brandon, Owen, and Holden all stopped listening to their mother once she placed her world-famous chocolate chip cookies.

"So, how's Amy doing?" Mrs. McGregor asks Brandon.

"Oh, Amy? She's great," Brandon answers broadly, but to be honest, he did not know how well his girlfriend was doing. It was a while since he did message her.

"Where does she go again?" Mr. McGregor asks.

"She's doing great over at UConn," Brandon munches on his cookie.

"Oh, really? That's good for her. Is she back yet?" Mrs. McGregor asks.

"Yeah, she's back. I was going to grab breakfast with her tomorrow. Don't worry," Brandon reassures. "I'll be back before lunch."

"Well, I'm glad you have a wonderful brunch date with your girlfriend, but I'm gonna have to go upstairs and catch up on Netflix. Thanks for the awesome dinner, mom," Holden excuses himself from the dining room table and runs upstairs to take a detour to his lovely sister's room.

While walking up the winding staircase filled with pictures from their childhood, Holden checks his phone to see if he's gotten any text yet. Seeing no new notification, he lets out a long sigh before walking into his sister's room to distract himself from his worries.

Contrary to popular belief, Holden doesn't hate his little sister. It's more that he just lives off of teasing her to death.

"Didn't you learn how to knock?" Kristen screeches, as Holden gets comfortable on her white fuzzy beanbag.

"Remind me to register for Intro to Knocking next semester," Holden gets comfortable in the beanbag chair.

"Get out of my room," Kristen groans as her phone vibrates.

"So, is Barry sweating his ball for tomorrow?" he asks Kristen, while lazily examining how his little sister's room has transformed since her rainbow unicorn days.

"Why are you so sure that he's even going to come tomorrow?" Kristen asks defiantly.

Holden always found it so adorable when his little sister would get defensive.

"Cause we're your family, and he wants us to like him," Holden answers confidently.

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Kristen asks exasperatedly.

Before Holden could answer, Owen and Brandon both enter the bedroom with a plate of cookies.

"Are you guys having a party in here without inviting us?" Owen asks and sits on Kristen's bed, while Brandon sits on her desk chair.

"Will you guys please just leave?" Kristen says exasperatedly.

"I just got comfortable," Owen munches on his cookie.

"So, how's Amy doing?" Kristen asks Brandon.

"Why is everyone asking me that?" Brandon groans.

"They're going through a rough patch right now," Holden says while snooping through his sister's room for her diary.

"Holden!" Brandon groans, as his brother never really learned the art of keeping his trap shut.

"What? No way!" Kristen gasps and drops onto the beanbag chair. Even though she always felt that her brothers were annoying, Kristen couldn't help but love whenever they included her in these triplet talks.

"What happened?" she asks for more details.

"There's nothing going on," he groans. Brandon really does not want to go into details of his relationship with his two brothers and baby sister. In fact, he really didn't want to talk about it at all.

"I think this is great. I always hated that bitch," Kristen grumbles.

"You too?" Brandon asks. He had no idea that so many people hated Amy.

"Haven't you ever realized how her compliments are never compliments?" Kristen asks.

"What does that even mean?" Brandon asks.

"She would always be like, 'Oh my god!'" Kristen mimics Amy's high-pitched voice, which brings Owen and Holden to laughter, "'I could never wear v necks like you. I don't want to come off like I'm trying hard, you know?'"

"How is that bad again?" Owen asks confused.

"In girl logic, she called me a whore," Kristen gives a pointed look.

"I'm sure you're just over exaggerating," Brandon sighs.

"You are so blind to everything she does," Kristen rolls her eyes.

Brandon looks down on his phone when he feels in vibrate in his pocket. It's finally a response from Amy. He texted two nights ago when he was packing to come back home to see when she would be back home as well.

I'm back.

"That it?" Brandon thinks.

Brandon was by no means a possessive boyfriend. In fact, he is what most girls would call the perfect boyfriend. Every birthday, he's given his girlfriend a charm for her bracelet that he got her for her birthday to commemorate every big even within their relationship. Each year the bracelet would get filled with charms of different shapes and designs throughout their near five year relationship. To the disgruntled disapproval of his two brothers, Brandon would travel all the way from Boston to the University of Connecticut just to see his girlfriend.

"Why do you always go? Why can't she come up here this month?" Owen would ask.

"Cause the princess is too afraid to take the bus by herself," Holden would say sarcastically.

But, Brandon didn't care. He loved Amy and could see a future with her that involved a small white house and a large family. Brandon was determined to make it work even though he was nervous about the current status of his relationship.

You want to meet up tonight? Brandon texts her back. It's been so long that he can't remember the last time he's even seen her face.

"My relationship has nothing to do with you guys," Brandon says defensively.

"Your relationship definitely affects us when you start listening to Adele," Owen says.

"Adele?" Kristen asks.

"I only listen to her cause Amy does," Brandon blushes.

"That's a filthy lie. I've seen you piss-ass drunk singing 'Rolling in the Deep' while hugging onto a tequila oh so intimately," Holden does an impersonation that causes the entire room to laugh except a grumbling Brandon.

"I was not hugging," Brandon denies even though he does vaguely remember being attached to said bottle.

Yes. Amy texts him back. Let's meet at Starbucks in 30 min.?

Brandon texts back that he'll meet her and says, "Love this family powwow, but I've got a date," Brandon says, as his mood lifts. Nothing his siblings could say can bring him down.

"Don't tell me you're going to ditch us for her!" Holden groans.

"What about ohana?" Owen asks.

"Ohana means family, and family means no one gets left behind," Kristen does her best Stitch impression from the movie Lilo & Stitch.

"Yeah, yeah," Brandon quiets his siblings. "I'll see you guys later," he walks out the door,while the rest of them boos him.