Fu*king Gallaghers

Chapter 3

Walking through the front door I can hear the commotion upstairs, I take off my coat and hang it on the banister, then walk quickly up the stairs to see what's happening, Fiona sees me and asks,
'You got any deodorant?' she's simultaneously brushing her teeth,
'No I use Lips, men's deodorant works better anyway' I reply,
'Is that true?' She looks at me in disbelief
'I think so'. She's dressed in a blue dress that flatters her, she has a big gold necklace on and a towel wrapped around her hair, her and V must be going out. They both rush into Lips room, I walk into Fiona and my room but it's a total mess. There are clothes scattered all over the bed and the drawers are opened with more clothes spilling out of them.
'Fiona! I'm not cleaning this up!' I shout to her,
'I'll do it when I get back, fuck!' She shouts back. I walk into the boys room and V rushes Fiona out downstairs, Lips on his hands and knees reaching under their dresser, he pulls out a homemade book, and stuck on the front of it is pictures of naked girls and female body parts, Lip and and I look at each other, I can tell it's not his because he would of never shown me this, it can't be Carl's because he's only eight.
'Ian's?' I ask him,
'Must be. Not mine' he chuckles back, I bet he's really proud with his discovery. He opens it and the curiosity on his face leaves and he looks up at me confused.
'What?' I laugh, expecting some kinky shit because Lip looks genuinely confused, but he shows me the insides of the book and it's covered in naked men. I look at Lip and my heart starts to beat faster, what? We both don't know what to say, we sit in silence until Ian's voice breaks us,
'Hey Veronica' he speaks from downstairs but his voice is coming closer to us, We both react to this and Lip grabs the book and jumps onto his bunk bed, I quickly jump on Ian's bed and lean back on the wall so it looks casual but really I'm far from casual.
Ian walks in, in his ROTC uniform and starts to take off his coat.
'Hey' he says,
Lip and I just stare at him, I don't know what it is but it feels like I'm seeing Ian as a complete new person, I don't know but I feel like I know him better, like I know the real him now.
'Hey' Lip finally says back, still staring at him. I start to feel bad because Ian's totally unaware that we know this huge secret about him, I look at Lip and he's still staring at Ian, so I get up and go have a shower.
Pulling back the shower curtain, I can't help but feel happy, Ian's finally come out, even if he doesn't technically know it yet. I turn on the shower and it spurts out some cold water then turns off again, I wiggle the bath handle so the bath runs and try the shower one more time, with luck, the shower water bursts out but the water is coming from different directions. We must of had this shower head for as long as we've had the house. I remove my clothes and step into the shower, the bath is cold on my feet and the freezing streams of water are barely touching my body. I'm not sure why I was so surprised at Ian though, I mean there's seven of us, so one of us was bound to be gay. I just always thought it would be Carl.

//time skip//

I'm sitting calmly on Ian's bed and Carl's asleep, were all pretty tired and were not talking, my backs against the wall and Ian's lying down, my legs draped over his. Lips lying in his bed, were all thinking. The room is silent apart from everyone's soft breathing and Carl's occasional sleep sigh. I stare at the socks on the floor and Lip finally breaks the silence.
'I got a hummer today' he says and jumps off his bed, Ian and I share a 'he's lying' look and Lip catches on.
'No really. From Karen Jackson' he states,
'No way' I say,
'It's true. She got a C in physics, needed a B'
Ian sits up in his bed and I move closer to him so Lip can also sit down. Ian reaches into the bedside table next to his bed and takes out a plastic bag full of weed.
'You wouldn't of waited this long to tell us' Ian insists,
Lip laughs 'oh what five hours?',
'No Ian's right you woulda been boasting as soon as you walked though the door' I say.
'Oh what you guys think I'm full of shit' Lip asks,
'Yes!' Ian and I say in sync, Ian starts to roll a joint.
'Fuck you' Lip laughs.
'You ever have a knob-job?' Lips question is directed at Ian, and I can tell where this is going,
'Once or twice' he replies, smiling,
'I don't here you rushing to tell me' Lip adds and I give him a look to tell him to shut up.
'Was she good?' I ask Lip to try and steer the attention away from Ian, it doesn't work. Ian passes me the joint I take a hit and then pass it to Lip.
'I mean I thought, we tell each other everything' Lip tells Ian and stands up to face him directly, Ian's still smiling because he has no idea what's coming next but I do,
'I don't tell you guys everything' I say trying to get Lip to let it go,
'I do' he says, and I can tell Ian's starting to feel uncomfortable.
'Unless..' Lip says walking to his bed, he lifts up his mattress and takes Ian's book out from underneath.