Nick's Obsession

Hurtful Words

Sitting at my vanity which was a present from my boyfriend, because he knew I loved doing my hair and make-up when I was in that kind of mood, I was blow-drying my hair. Evan left that morning together with Zoey, heading to Tokyo for work. We wouldn't see him in three months which made me miss him already. He was always around, always annoying Nick and entertaining me. I knew we could stay in touch via email and text, but it wasn't the same as always having him around. We always joked about Evan being our adoptive child and right now it did feel like our child left the house.

"Emily!" I think I heard Nick shout my name, but as I glanced over my shoulder I didn't see him so I continued drying my hair.

I was fluffing up my hair, actually liking the Hollywood style of it when I definitely heard Nick scream my name this time.

"What?!" I called back, confused why he was so loud this early in the morning.

"Get over here!"

It annoyed me that he called me over like I was his pet, he never did that before. I knew something was wrong, seriously wrong for Nick to raise his voice at me. Turning off the blow dryer I put it on my vanity, ran my fingers through my slightly damp hair and left the bedroom. As I walked over the living room I tightened my robe around my waist, getting ready for whatever was awaiting me.

Entering the living room I froze as my eyes landed on a man I hadn't seen or spoken to for a very long time now. When I moved to New York I called him every day, giving him updates on my life. That became less and less when I started my job at the club and met Brandon. He made me realize that sharing the same DNA doesn't necessarily make people a family. Brandon had always been there for me, he never made me feel like I was a burden to him. Max, the man who was glaring daggers at me did make me feel like that. So I stopped contacting him altogether, thinking he didn't mind that. Guess I was wrong.

"Max?"

"Emily."

"I didn't know you had a brother, Emily." Nick stated, making me shift my gaze to him, "I'm pretty sure you never mentioned him to me."

I didn't want Nick to be that angry at me, especially over Max. I hadn't seen him in months or spoken to him in months for that matter. Max didn't matter to me, I knew that was harsh, but it was reality. I didn't love him the same way I loved Brandon, I struggled with that for a while, but then I let it go. I let Max go. So him standing in our living room wasn't appreciated.

"I never mentioned him because Max and I aren't close."

"Excuse me?"

"It's the truth." I didn't want to hurt Max, but it was how I felt about our relationship, "I'm closer to Brandon than Max. We haven't seen each other or spoken to each other for months. So I more or less forgot about him."

Max snorted, "You forgot about me?"

"Emily." Nick was scolding me, he didn't do it yesterday but he was definitely doing it now.

I stared at Max not feeling anything as I looked at him. I mean if you hadn't seen your family for a long while you were supposed to be excited, affectionate, but I didn't feel any of that. Max could be any other guy in the room and glancing at Nick I could tell it pissed him off. He wasn't having it which made me wonder why. My relationship with Max had nothing to do with him, with us.

"I'm sorry, but it's not exactly like we were having tea parties every Sunday afternoon."

"Emily." Nick warned me once again, he turned to look at Max, "Listen, you're in town now and I I'll be straight with you, I don't feel comfortable with you leaving like this. So how about you go back to the hotel get settled in and we'll meet up for lunch?"