mint; （ a. knight ）

3. golden;

"I appreciate you doing this for me, Bran," I said for probably the fourth time that morning.

My second oldest brother Brandon was currently under my car changing my oil for me. In my many years of driving, I couldn't recall a time where I ever took my car into the shop to get an oil change. My Dad always said there was no need for it because if he wasn't changing my oil, one of my brothers would do it for me. Unlucky for Brandon, he was my closest brother.

"You know I don't mind, Elle." Brandon slid out from under my car and stood up, wiping his greasy hands on his jeans. "There you go. You're all set for another 7000 miles."

"Thanks a lot," I said and wrapped my arms around him nice and tight.

"No problem, dude." Brandon squeezed me tighter. It was a game we had been playing since we were small. We would keep squeezing each other tighter until one of us submitted. Brandon called it 'bonding' and our mother called it 'rough-housing.'

"Will you give Maya a kiss for me?" I asked Brandon as he released me from his 'bonding' hug. My brother and his longtime girlfriend had their first baby last year right around my birthday which was very exciting. I was now an aunt to three babies, as my oldest brother Gabe and his wife had my niece and nephew a few years ago now.

"Yeah, of course," Brandon told me. He stopped a minute and looked at me. "You're all right, aren't you, Ellie?"

I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my hoodie and shrugged. "Yeah, I guess I'm okay. I'm doing better than I was."

Brandon nodded slowly. "And this Awsten kid? He's being, ya know, good to you?"

"Yeah, he's a really good friend," I said pointedly. "We're just friends, Bran."

"Yeah, no, I know that." Brandon blew air from his lips. "I just... like to know you're all right out here alone."

"I'm not out here alone. I have a bunch of friends here. Friends that didn't take Matt's side." I reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. "And San Antonio is not that far away, even if I did need you."

Brandon nodded slowly and squeezed my hand back. "Okay, okay. You know, I wouldn't be a good brother if I didn't at least try to look out for you."

I laughed. "You're a great brother, shut up."

"But seriously, if that Awsten kid tries anything stupid, please remind him that me, Gabe and Dad all have guns and we can shoot them real well. We can also hide bodies."

I rolled my eyes. "And you just ruined the moment. Thanks for that. Now get the hell out of here!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'm going." Brandon paused a minute and then turned back around. "Hey, Elle, are you actually going to that party tonight? I saw it on Facebook."

Shit. I was really hoping he hadn't seen that. "Uh, yeah. I'm going with Carys, Hannah, and Kier." I braced myself before continuing, "Why?" I wasn't stupid. I knew why.

Brandon frowned at me. "Because Matt is going to be there. I don't want him to say anything stupid to you." His frown deepened. "I really wish you weren't going at all."

"The going away party was being planned for literal months. Tia and Seb are still my friends and tons of other people are going to be there. Not just Matt," I said, trying to reason with him and maybe myself, too. "I can't just not do things with some of my friends just because they're mutual friends. This is still my life."

"I just wish he wasn't going to be there. He's going to bug you and I want to fucking bash his face in for that." Brandon ran his fingers through his hair.