It Started with a Kiss

Chapter 11

"Hey, I'm home!" I called out as soon as I opened the door, receiving nothing but silence in reply. Dad must have still been working. Though it was pretty late, even for him.

Trudging up the stairs, I opened the door to Toby's room to find that he was hunched over his desk, drawing, his desk lamp the only source of light in the otherwise dark room.

"Hey baby brother," I said, as I walked in and sat down on his bed, noticing how messy the place was, which was odd. My brother always kept his room relatively neat, said it helped him concentrate better. My room, on the other hand, would be neater if an atomic bomb went off in it at times. I never meant to be messy, I just never seemed to have the time to clean up. But the fact that my brothers room resembled mine right now was not a good thing, not good at all.

"Hey," he replied, never taking his eyes off the page in front of him, as he sketched away. I just lay flat on his bed and looked up at his ceiling, which was littered with glow-in-the-dark stars in varying constellations which I'd stuck up eons ago, as I waited for him to finish whatever he was doing. If there was one thing I'd learned about my brother, it was that you didn't distract him when he was working on something. Trust me, you paid for it severely when you did. His hissy fits often rivaled Sarah's in terms of scariness.

After about ten minutes, during which my mind was pretty much blank apart from mentally tracing the different constellations on the ceiling, Toby got up from his desk chair and lay beside me.

"I haven't talked to you in a while, Sis." He said absently, as he himself focused on the stars which were only glowing slightly, thanks to the desk lamp in the corner.

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that. It's just there was a lot going on this week, I suppose." I replied, feeling guilty and mentally reminding myself to start spending more time at home again. It wasn't like I didn't have a reason not to be here anymore and it wasn't fair leaving Toby on his own for so long. He was only sixteen.

"So, did my favorite sister have a fun time in 'the box'?" He asked, looking over at me with a smile, while I put a hand to my face, as if to shield myself from the embarrassment of the previous day. Seriously, how cringe-worthy was I?

"Oh my god. Everyone has been going on and on about it and its doing my head in! I thought I might have been able to leave it at school but apparently not."

"Well, I have to admit, hearing that my birthday present was displayed to the student body was a little entertaining." He said, referring to my batman underwear. Yes, my brother bought me superhero underwear for my birthday. The kid had no shame.

"I was actually certain I was going to die from mortification." I told him honestly, trying to stop my cheeks from reddening at the memory. The fact that Toby heard about all of that just made the situation even worse, as now I knew I'd never be allowed forget it.

"Well, you sure made Grace happy. I think you lot have raised a lot more than any other year. Thanks to the wonderful union without whom the school and wider community would not be able to function." He said as sarcastically as possible. My brother had issues with authority or hierarchy or whatever, which meant that he wasn't all that popular in school, not that he really minded it. People here were funny like that, you go against the grain even just once and that's what would define you for your school life, if not even longer. Plus, I'd a sneaking suspicion that the disdain was also for the person who had no doubt told him about it.

"So when did Grace tell you all of this?"

"Yesterday evening. She was looking for you."

"And you didn't think to tell me this until now?"