Playing With Lightning

Caught Out

“I know that it’s a little bit frightening, we might as well be playing with lightning nooooow,” I sang loudly, dancing around my room with a hairbrush microphone. It was a rare occasion that I had the house to myself, so no, I wasn’t wearing pants, and yes, I was acting like an idiot.

The phone rang from downstairs and I slid down to get it, sliding on the floorboards in my socks. Note to self, wear shoes more often. I grabbed it as I skidded past, putting it to my ear.

“George residence, how may I help you?” I said in a posh voice. I heard multiple laughs from the other end of the line. “Oh, it’s you guys. What do you want?”

“I’m going to go ahead and guess you’re dancing around the house only half dressed?” Max said and the boys all stopped laughing. Damn, he knew me too well.

“Sorry, did you want something?” I changed the subject. I could imagine more than one smirk among them.

“Yeah, just letting you know we’ll be home in fifteen,” he informed me. “So put some pants on please.”

“Fine,” I grumbled, hanging up without saying goodbye. Just as I was about to put it back on the hook, it started ringing again. I picked it up expecting Max ringing back. “What?”

“Oh, uh, bad time?” Jayne’s voice came from the phone. Crap.

“Oh no sorry,” I spluttered apologetically. “I thought it was Max.”

“Understandable,” she laughed.

“Well, he’s actually not in at the moment, but he’ll be back in fifteen minutes. Should I get him to call you back?”

“Actually, I want to talk to you,” okay, weird. “See, I was contacted by a women’s magazine that wants to do an article on the boys. Something about the inspiration women in their lives. Anyway, they asked me to do an interview, and asked if I had anyone else to suggest. Knowing your mum lives so far away, I offered up you and Taylah, is that alright?”

“Of course,” I agreed, trying to sound less excited than I was. “It’s cool with me, I’ll let Tay know.”

“Thank you,” she said, sounding relieved. “If you had have said no, I don’t know what I would do. They said they wanted at least three stories. I’ve got myself and the team, the boys’ girlfriends, and now you.”

“Well, we’re happy to help,” I had an eye on the clock. I was running out of time to go upstairs and put on pants. The clock was ticking away. “Really sorry Jayne, but I have to go. I’ll talk to you later okay, bye.”

I hung up, dropping the phone on the bench and making a run for it. Just as I was halfway up the stairs, the door swung open. I cursed and pushed myself up the last few steps.

“Shit Max, you weren’t kidding,” Nathan laughed. I stuck my head around the stairs and gave him the finger before ducking into my room and pulling on a pair of shorts. I skipped downstairs like nothing had happened.

“I swear Maeve,” Max shook his head as I came into the kitchen.

“Hey, I was in the middle of a very important phone call,” they all gave me ‘as if’ looks. “I was! I was organizing an interview with Jayne. Even ask her.”

“What interview?” Max asked.

“Some magazine wants to know about the inspiring women in your life or something,” I shrugged.

“And they picked you?” Tom laughed. I shot him a glare and got out an apple, sitting up on the bench and taking a bite.

“You’re so weird,” Nathan teased from where he was sitting at the dining room table. I just grinned and took another bite of my apple.

“I cannot believe you made me catch a taxi when you were coming here anyway!” Tay burst in, glaring at Tom. “You’re such an ass I swear.”

“Hey, independence is good for you,” he ruffled her hair as he walked past. She jumped up onto the bench with me, leaning against my shoulder.

“Guess what babe,” I said and she perked up immediately. “We’re going to be in a magazine.” I explained the interview and she bounced up and down excitedly.

We ended up in the lounge playing wii, the life of the famous and all that. Seeing as there were only four remotes, we split into teams. Max and Siva, Tom by himself, Nath and Taylah and Jay and I. We put on Mario Kart, the ultimate of games ever.

“Yay, I’m winning!” Tay said proudly.

“Uh babe, you’re the bottom screen,” Nathan laughed, pointing to her actual last place standing as she drove right off a cliff. We all started laughing and she blushed, continuing the game silently. Nathan reached his arms around her to place his hands over hers, helping her to control the remote. Unbelievably, they ended up coming first, beating Jay and I by about a second.

“Not fair,” Jay pouted. “You totally cheated.”

“Don’t be a sore loser babe,” Nathan winked. He and Tay high fived and started doing a victory dance, which Tom got on video. Blackmail much?

“Let’s have a sleepover,” I suggested suddenly as the idea popped into my head. We hadn’t had a big group sleepover for a while, so I figured, why not? Everyone agreed and we sent the boys to drag the mattresses from the spare room upstairs.

Whenever we’d have a sleepover, we’d make one huge bed on the floor of whoever’s loungeroom we were crashing in. They always ended up with us acting like we were five years old. Tay and I ran upstairs to change into our onesie pyjamas, hers were purple with white spots and mine were brown with a tan patch on the stomach and bear paws and ears. It was a sleepover tradition, and come on, we were pretty darn cute.

By the time we got upstairs, the beds were all set, complete with a huge pile of pillows and blankets. I fell down onto my back in the pile, sinking into the fabric. Tay sat down cross legged beside me. She got her ‘I just had an idea face’ and grinned at me evilly.

“Let’s play confessions!”