TYRONE’S POV
“Christian get your fat ass off me!” I grunted, pushing him off my legs. “Georgia, control your boyfriend.”
“Bad Christian,” she laughed, grabbing his hand and pulling him to his feet. He pouted and hugged her, acting like an affectionate little puppy.
“I don’t give a shit to be honest,” Taylah came in, her phone to her ear. “No, you’re being stupid. Yes I’m serious. Just get your ass over here. You have ten minutes, yeah kay bye. No excuses. Goodbye.”
“Maeve?” Georgia asked and she nodded before falling onto the couch with Mitchel. “She’s just being difficult.”
“They both are,” Brock sighed. “They know they’re both wrong, but they’re too stubborn to admit it.”
“Agreed,” Taylah nodded.
“What are we talking about?” Luke came in, ruffling his hair tiredly.
“You,” Georgia answered bluntly. Guess we’re not being subtle.
“Oh I forgot,” he rolled his eyes. “You guys hate me because I won’t apologise.”
“We don’t hate you,” Taylah corrected matter of factly. “We haven’t taken sides, because you’re both being impossible. It would be so simple to fix all of this if you’d just talk to each other.”
“Well I –“ he started before being cut off.
“You dragged me out of bed to sit in the lounge room like we do every day?” Maeve was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. She did look like she’d just woken up, but in a good way I suppose.
“I dragged you out of bed so you’d stop wallowing in self-pity,” Tay shrugged. “Human company will do you good, sit.” Maeve rolled her eyes, yep those two really do belong together, and sat on the armchair huffily.
“No way!” Mitchel said suddenly in the middle of a movie. We all looked at him for an explanation, but he just kept tapping away at his phone. He finally looked up and noticed us all staring. “My brother’s in town with a couple of mates. He’s going to come over this afternoon.”
“I’ve always wanted to meet him,” Georgia said excitedly and Taylah agreed. “I love his youtube!”
“Wait, is he the one you guys showed me?” Maeve asked, joining in the conversation for the first time. “He was awesome!”
So a couple of hours later, we were all sitting around waiting for the arrival of Clinton and his friends. The girls were upstairs in Taylah’s room while we were down in the kitchen. Brock and Christian were arguing about something unimportant while the rest of us just listened and laughed. The doorbell rang once before we heard the door open and a group of voices coming down the hall.
“Little bro!” Clinton came into the room, followed by two other guys I hadn’t met before. Mitchel jumped up and gave him a brotherly hug, grinning widely. “What’s going on guys?”
“Good to see you man,” Luke greeted him. The appearance of new faces acted as a sufficient distraction.
“Mitch, where’s this girlfriend I’ve heard all about?” Clinton asked, looking around. Mitch called up the stairs and the girls came hurrying down. Taylah skipped over to Mitch and Clinton while Maeve and Georgia skid across the tiles, crashing into us where we were standing in a little group. “Oh nicely done Mitch, she’s lovely.”
“Yeah, she’s alright,” he shrugged. She acted offended and pulled away, but he just grinned and pulled her back in to his side.
“Nice to meet you Clinton,” Taylah smiled winningly. “Oh yeah, this is Georgia and Maeve. Georgia is Christian’s girlfriend and Maeve is…” she trailed off awkwardly. “Well, she’s Maeve.” Maeve laughed and did a dorky little curtsy.
“Pleasure ladies,” Clinton said smoothly. “This is Jesse, and that’s Ben.” He pointed to each of his friends in turn. They looked a bit older than most of us, but they seemed nice enough.
We ended up sitting around the dining room table having little conversations amongst ourselves. Mitchel, Taylah and Brock were talking to Clinton, Maeve, Georgia and I were talking to Ben, and Luke and Christian were talking to Jesse. They really were nice guys, and apparently they were pretty talented as well as being funny.
The girls took over the kitchen and made everyone tacos. We really should have learnt by now not to let them cook because the house always looked like it’d been hit by a bomb when they finished, but hey, we were all way too lazy to make anything for ourselves.
“Ty, pass the cheese!” Georgia called from the other end of the table. I slid it down the length of the table to her and she caught it skillfully.
“I’ll get drinks,” Maeve jumped up. It was so weird, both her and Luke were being incredibly cheerful, a strange contrast to the last couple of days. On the odd occasion that we actually got either of them out of their rooms, they’d just mope around, avoiding all contact with each other.
“So what do you guys do for fun around here?” Jesse asked when we’d all finished eating. “Where are the good places to go out?”
“Well considering most of us are underage,” I pointed out. “We don’t really go out much. But apparently there’s a really good place on Ellis Street, about ten minutes away.”
“You up for it boys?” he looked to Clinton and Ben who both nodded. “Anyone else want in?” He looked around to us expectantly.
“I’ll come,” Maeve said suddenly and we all looked at her in surprise.
“You’re only seventeen,” Luke said, speaking to her for the first time in days.
“Yeah for like a week,” she reminded him cooly. “I hear that place is easy as to get into anyway.”
“Alright,” Clinton shrugged. “Let’s get going then. I’ll talk to you later Mitch, really nice to meet you all.” Maeve got up to follow them out and we all looked to each other like ‘what do we do?’, but it was Luke who stood up.
“Don’t be stupid Maeve,” he said, sounding slightly strangled. “Just… don’t.”
“Why, because that’s your job?” she laughed before linking arms with Clinton and dragging him out of the house after Ben and Jesse. “Don’t wait up.”
It took about twenty minutes from the time the door closed for Luke to stand up from his spot at the table, grab his phone from the bench and walk out without a word. You go Lukey.
