My Mother's house

17

    I woke up to Nath, shirtless underneath me. My head pounded, reminding me why it was time to kiss the parties goodbye. I ran my hand down Nath's rigid stomach to his hip and pulled myself closer to him. It must have woken him, his fingers found my hair and started to play.
    "Kill me now."
    His chest rumbled under me, causing my head to throb. "Stop laughing it hurts me."
    He kissed my forehead and disentangled himself from me. I felt the bed lift as he got out and opened my eyes. He was bent over, putting on his jeans, then headed out the door.
    I laid in bed, my head buried into a pillow. Not shortly after, and myself failing to go back to sleep, Nath came back with a glass of water and two aspirin.
    "Take this and I'll make you some breakfast."
    I sat up and took the two white pills and sipped on the water. I'm sure I looked a mess right now. Me and Chester could be cousins, but Nath didn't look at me any differently. He pulled on his shirt and left for the kitchen. I dragged my feet to the vanity. I took one glance in the mirror and kept walking to the bathroom. Although I needed a shower, it was not in the cards right now. I wiped the smeared make up off my face and went back to the bedside to check my phone. A little after nine the screen yelled at my eyeballs. I looked outside to confirm the place of the sun. Still low, telling me I should be in bed. And there it was, a beat up blue truck in my ditch. Someone had tried to drive home drunk. That's strike two.
    I got dressed and headed out there, just to check no one had died. When I got to the truck that had turned too early for the road, I found no one inside. I guess someone had taken the owner home and would be back later for the truck. The angle made it to where he couldn't get out on his own, good thing we had a tractor. I started back up the drive and noticed my tail gate was down. I walked closer, and found bright pink panties in the bed, and a used condom on the ground not far from it. Strike three and my rage was beating out my hang over. I walked around the house out to the back. Everything was still there, just like it was last night, with extra solo cups and beer bottles and cans on the ground. I couldn't consider this a strike. They could have been too drunk last night to clean up, but they had better be out here today. I walked back into the house from the back yard and into the dinning room and sat down.
    Nath was in the kitchen and it smelled like eggs sausage and biscuits. The smell pulled me in and I leaned against the counter. "I didn't know you could cook."
    Nath didn't miss a beat. "Well my sister wasn't a very good cook at all until she got married. Someone had to feed us when we were little."
    I watched him whip up some gravy then make a plate. He handed it to me, then followed me with his own after a minute. We ate and chit chatted. Everything felt right with him now. Almost. I still didn't understand how me kissing his boo boo's would translate into him doing mountainous amounts of labor as a thank you, even if he did love me. Or how touching me like he did translated into anything other than lust. Maybe it was a way to get my attention? And I still wanted to know who was beating him and why they didn't get turned in. God I just wanted to get answers now.
    "Do you have any plans today?" I asked him.
    "Just the normal, work at the hotel. But today is Sunday, the bar is closed. Why, did you?"
    "Yep. Get David and his friends to clean up the yard, and then they are painting the house today."
    "How are you going to get them to do that?"
    "They broke the rules. No drugs, no drunk driving and no sex. I smelled weed last night, there's a truck in the ditch, and I found pink panties and a used rubber by my truck."
    "What kind of truck is it?"
    "A blue beat up chevy." Nath's face grew the biggest grin I had ever seen on his face.
    "What?"
    "That just explained all three of those things. Chuck's sister. She's wild. Worse than Chuck. Rachel. Better go check on your brother."
    I finished eating, shoving spoonfuls into my mouth. I didn't want my food to get cold, but wanted to hurry to catch him in the act. I put my plate in the sink and grabbed a pitcher, filling it with water and went to the freezer and grabbed some ice. Ohhh if he was in his room with a girl, this was going to be the best hang over ever.
    I hastily made my way up the stairs sloshing water, Nath had stayed and finished eating his food. I slowed down at the top and crept along the floor boards, trying hard not to make a sound. I opened the door slowly, and there he was, with a girl, both in bed clinging to each other. I really didn't want to be mean to the girl, but she did break one of my rules. I aimed for David's head and dumped it all out at once.
    David shot up and she scouted away from him. The blanket pooled at his waist exposing the top half of who I hoped was Rachel. She yanked the blanket up to her chest.
    "What the fuck Lexis?" He was pissed and was wiping water away from his eyes.
    "I said no sex, no drunk driving, and no drugs. I also said for the barn to be clean. Guess what happened?"
    David looked over to Rachel who was pushing the hair out of her face.
    "Guess who gets to paint the house?"
    "Me."
    "You. And Chuck. And Dan. And all of your other friends too. And I want the barn and yard cleaned up by dark tonight."
    "Well you were fucking uncle Joe."
    I was about to leave but this little girl had to open her mouth. "I wasn't fucking Nath. This is my house not yours. My rules not your trashy ones." I looked David straight in the eyes, keeping my anger calm. "If you ever want her hanging around here ever again, she better be out there painting with you boys." I closed the door behind me at almost a slam, and stomped down the stairs, empty pitcher in hand.
I met Nath in the kitchen, he was cleaning up the dishes. The sight of him erased what had just happened upstairs. I narrowed my eyes at him. "You made me get a dishwasher so you wouldn't have to wash dishes when you were here at my house cooking for me."
    He chuckled, "I might have, but don't deny you love having a dishwasher."
    I walked further into the kitchen and handed him the empty pitcher. "I don't like your niece at all. I feel sorry for your sister, first she had to deal with us, now her own kids are wild."
    Nath closed the dishwasher and pulled me to him. "They aren't like that in front of her. Complete opposite. You should come to dinner tonight with me and see it. Chuck will even call you ma'am."
    My eyes got big, "No way."
    "Yep, so how about it? I can pick you up around five. You can bring David and then he can see the classier Rachel. The kind that wears clothes."
    "I think you might have a deal, as long as everything is cleaned up before then. They can paint next weekend, or after school."