A House Full of Brothers

Chapter 44

  The next day was all but good. I guess it wasn't necessarily bad but there were surely more cons than pros. For starters, I got to surf the crimson wave, being woken up by body-shattering cramps. To make it worse, I also had to start my morning off by doing laundry now that my sheets, pyjama shorts, and underwear now have a nice splash of red. Laundry isn't a big deal, I kind of enjoy doing laundry. Not the process but the results of clean, soft, and lavender-smelling clothes. However, the fact that I had to do it at the crack of dawn, as I felt as if my intestines were about to crawl out of my body, was less than thrilling.

  I then had to talk to my brother about the lady he had hidden from me - not "us", not the boys but me - for a year. And that takes us to now: my snappy and tired self yelling at my frustrated brother.

  "I don't know, Jackson," I narrowed my eyes at him as he groaned and tried to wake himself up, "I just think it's funny that you could date a girl for a year, manage to tell everyone but me and then get all pissy when I try to date Blake!"

  "I knew you'd get mad." He sighed, "Kinda like you are now." And my over-dramatic self gasped.

  "I am 'mad'," I put air quotes around the word as if I wasn't mad - which was quite ridiculous as anyone could tell I was mad, but that would make Jackson right and I wasn't in the mood for him to be correct right now, "because you didn't tell me you had a girlfriend for a year!"

  "Why is it any of your business?" He raised his voice slightly, trying to get his point across. I blinked incredulously, as if he was crazy. I knew how difficult I was being at the moment. But with the stress of graduation, moving, shark week, and one of my brothers having a secret girlfriend, I didn't care.

  "Because we're family. And because it was apparently all of your guys' business when I got with Blake." I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrow while he looked at me with a glare.

  "That was forever ago, Brook." Jackson truly looked like he was about to bang his head on the table, but so was I, so I didn't pity him enough to stop.

  "Maybe it was forever ago but you had this secret for even longer, so." I furrowed my eyebrows, pretending to be in deep thought. He took a deep breath, opened his mouth to say something before shutting it. He looked at me with a tilted head for a few seconds before pushing himself off the counter.

  "Yeah, I'm done with this." He spoke as he left the house. Though I was being sensitive earlier, I just watched him leave as if nothing had happened between us and as if he were the one to be overreacting right now.

  I watched him leave, slamming the door behind him, before I grabbed the tub of ice cream from the fridge and cozying up on the couch and turning on the TV.

  My cozy paradise was short-lived as the doorbell rang. I groaned with a mouth full of ice cream but still got up to get the door. There stood Kyle but I was barely able to process who it was before he barged into the house.

  "You didn't think to tell me you're moving?! With Blake?! To California?!" He paced in front of me while I looked at him quizzically. 

  I moved back to my spot on the couch and set the ice cream on my lap.

  "It was only a recent decision." I said quietly, looking around him and at the TV. I failed to notice his glare up until he turned off the TV. "Hey-"

  "Dude!"

  "What?!"

  "You can't not tell me this stuff!" Kyle's arms flung around as he scolded me.

  "I don't know! It just didn't cross my mind I guess." I shrugged.

  "Who am I gonna talk to while you're gone?" He glared at me.

  "I don't know. Chase?"

  "That dip?! I think not." That suggestion was clearly shot down by Kyle.

  "Okay.... Get a girlfriend." The suggestion seemed like more of a question, and Kyle once again nixed the idea with the roll of his eyes.

  "Girls are too much work-"

  "I'm a girl!"

  "Barely-"

  "Hey!"

  "You know I'm joking! But my point is, you were literally the only person who didn't make me want to pluck my eyes out all the time." He rubbed his eyes, making his way to lay on the couch with his head off the edge.

  "Wish I could say the same about you." I smirked as I took a bite of ice cream, avoiding eye contact with his glare.

  "Okay, you are losing that rep." Kyle dead-panned.

  "Move with us. Be our roommate. Take a long walk off a short pier -I don't know!"

  "The first two suggestions were much better, the last one was quite rude." He folded his arms.

  "You're fine, get over it." I giggled, feeling no sympathy as my best friend smiled too.

  "Wait. Can I actually move in with you guys?" Kyle sat up excitedly.

  "I mean, it was a joke. But you'd have to ask Blake and I don't think he'd like that. And you still have high school to finish." This time I did offer a bit of sympathy with a pity-smile. His hopes seemed high until I mentioned school.

  "Ah shit. That again."

  "But I'm most likely gonna visit often since I have all the boys here. And you could always come down to visit."

  "That's a lot of money and I am broke." 

  "Get a job-"

  "That takes work-"

  "Oh, ya think?" I stared at him until my focus went back too my food. He stared at me dumbly, silence overtaking the room, that was until he spoke up again.

  "I could always get a GED." He suggested quietly, as if he were waiting to be yelled at for his idea.

  "You could." I confirmed.

  "Or your boyfriend could just let you live in his huge ass mansion." Kyle grumbled. I repeated my last sentence, nodding my head with a small smile. "Or you guys could both just enjoy doing nothing for a year or two. Then go through with the plan." I once again nodded. "You aren't gonna go through with any of my ideas, huh?"

  "No... I don't think so, Ky." I smiled gently at him.

  "You guys suck, oh my god." He grumbled as he crawled onto the couch beside me, stealing my spoon, and turning the TV back on.

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