Pen Ink

Bailey - Over Protective Brother Syndrome

I scoffed, glancing back at Lucas as I flipped him off before focusing my attention back on Kennedy and Simon. The two were staring up at the sign above the entrance and standing a little too close for my taste. Something in me was starting to boil, and I knew I didn't like it.

"Ahem." Lucas cleared his throat and I looked back at him slightly agitated

"What?" I grumbled crossing my arms over my chest. 

"You look like a cherry tomato. Like you look like you just drank the blood of your enemies and it just went straight to your face. Like seriously chill out. You're getting way too worked up over nothing."

I sighed running my hands down my face. "Right. I just don't know."

"Hey.." He puts his hands on my shoulders, turning me to face him. "It's alright, Just take a deep breath and we can get going." He says staring me in the eyes.

"Yeah, whatever." I grumble, shrugging his hands off my shoulders and standing up as I take one last glance at Kennedy and Simon.

I guess I've always sort of been pretty protective over her. I remember our first high school dance, the homecoming of freshman year, I offered to take her as friends because I knew a couple guys who planned on asking her and well, let's just say I didn't like her going with a date. I also pretty certain Kennedy liked one of them. And she knew that I would know. I knew everything, she thought it was kind of weird. I mean it was easy. The class of 2014 knew that no was to date, my sister. Kennedy Moore was off limits. I may or may not have threatened any guy that so much as even looked at her. I pretty much single-handedly ruined her high school dating career. When she found out she was pissed. And I mean, bury-me-six-feet-under kind of mad. So of course, when she told me that Andrew Evans, of all people, was taking her to homecoming, it was no doubt I was going to disapprove. Andrew, the boy she'd had a crush on since seventh grade. Andrew, one of the most popular boys in our class. Andrew, the boy most of the girls at one point or another had found cute. Even Robin, who's a lesbian. I didn't have much time to act so I called Andrew and told him that Kennedy would rather go with someone else because she had little to zero interest in him. I also told him that if she mentioned it to her that I would single-handedly ruin his football career. And he knew I had the motive and tools to do so. He didn't ay more than a couple a hello's here or there in the hallway to her in the hallway for the rest of the school year.

I mean, she's my sister. My twin sister for that matter. There was never a moment we weren't there for each other. And we always will be. It was a pact we made when we were little. Hell, I bet if I searched our dads' garage hard enough I could find the contract we wrote with the new pack of crayons we had got that year for Christmas. (They didn't last long. They were gone in less than two months due to a little game we played. To put it shortly, Kennedy and I were weird kids and decided to have a crayon-eating competition. The shit our dad's gave us for it was worse than we decided to have a paper eating competition.) We ended up putting our hands in one of the paint buckets that was left open while they were renovating the new house and using it to leave our hand print's on the bottom of the paper instead of signatures. Dad was so angry, I remember we tried to lie and say that Pa (what we refer to our other dad as) told us we could. Didn't work well. Especially since Kennedy can't lie for shit. Even now, she can barely keep a secret. So you can only imagine how easily she gave in as a five-year-old.

Sometimes I miss the old times like that. Kennedy and I were much closer when we were younger. I mean we're still really close as adults. I could never imagine my life without her. She's one of the main reasons I'm making it selling my artwork, and why I decided to pursue a career as an artist. I have her to thank for convincing me to decide to continue to make and sell my artwork. She's also the reason people pay a decent amount for my artwork. If she hadn't been there when I almost quit drawing and threw away my paints I never would be where I am now. I'm thankful, to say the least. A few years ago, our last year of high school, I was considering throwing away all my art supplies because of all the shit I got for it. I had always loved creating things, I had been obsessed with art since middle school, and Kennedy knew that. So when she saw I was getting ready to throw literally everything out, she stopped me and made me realize how much of a stupid mistake I was making. If she hadn't stopped me at that moment, I would have given up the one passion that truly makes me happy.

It's stuff like this that makes my face turn a bright fire engine red as I feel myself boil over with both  anger and possessiveness just by staring at the two of them. Lucas appears to notice as he stands up and grabs me by the arm, pulling me off the couch, "Let's go hot head." He says, glancing at me before looking back towards my sister and Simon.  I brushed off his hand and stood up straight, not taking my eyes off of Simon and Kennedy. Watching them stare at each other, laughing as they enter the arcade.