"Siblings"

12

"It's a date! It's a date I swear Melanie, I've never seen anything like it!" Brittany cheers as a way of announcing her presence this clouded morning. My head snaps up from the homework pages I'm currently finishing up to glance in her direction. "There was hand-holding and everything! The whole 9-yards! How can this even be happening?"

My brows furrow in confusion at her words. "What on earth are you talking about?"

"Oliver! I saw it! I saw everything oh my goodness, it's so obvious I can't believe you haven't noticed yet!" she's talking so fast with her accent most words start mingling together and I smile at her enthusiasm.

"If you're informing me about him and Ester I'll like you to know that it's almost impossible for them to be going on a date!" I giggled. "Father wouldn't even let me out of the house at first with you for school projects! There's no way in hell he's letting Oliver out on a date with a girl. Who, by the way, he's only formally met like, I don't know, twice!"

"Don't be too sure! This is different. He wouldn't let you would with me because he probably thought I was trash. I'll have you know my white shoes are and will forever be white and clean." She retorted. "And besides, ever since Oliver came into the picture your father has been totally different and you know it!"

I sat my book down fully and reflected her answer for a moment. She wasn't entirely wrong; Father had indeed changed since Oliver's arrival and I thought it might just be his comfort. He seemed more tolerant now, not like he ever wasn't, but it's inconsistent. When Mother had first died, his stern facial expression never left his face and most things that went wrong were pointed towards me. He soon realized his mistake months later and had apologized in depth for his "unnecessary behavior".

From then on out, most days were back to being smile filled and pleasant. Now, after Oliver, it's like the civil behaviors from before have been magnified.

"I still don't understand, even if they were going out together, how would you know?" I asked.

With a roll of her eyes, she sat down and let out a huff. "Because you tosser, the hand holding has been getting annoying, and apparent, and I'm almost 99 percent certain I just witnessed them exchanging numbers."

I had to stop and think for a second because wow, that was a lot to take in. First, hand holding? Since when was that happening? I get that he was completely and utterly gone for her (he even told me himself that she was practically his world) but how did PDA become a part of the equation?

"At least they're not snogging in the corner," Brit said as if she was reading my mind.

I nodded in acknowledgment, "yes but that doesn't confirm anything, right?" I paused just long enough for her to begin to interject with a new statement but I quickly cut her off. "I'll just ask him about it tonight, okay?"

Walking in to see Father already home and Oliver sitting at the table across from him was a bit of an astonishment. One, because Father is almost never home when we arrive from school. Two, how did Oliver make it in before me? Was he even on the bus ride back? And three, why did it look as if Oliver was sulking as low as he could get in his chair while Father was leaning in?

I wasn't prepared at all for that scene.

"What's going on?" I asked the two as I walked further into the breakfast room. Father was quick to hold out a hand toward me, signaling for me to stop intervening. I shut my mouth into a straight line and made my way over to the kitchen counter to try and busy myself while they seemed to have an urgent conversation.