When It All Falls Down

4 - fire & desire

I groan, "You two listen to gossip more than the average man."

Caleb sighs in relief, "So it's not true right?"

"Oh no, it is. I overslept and he gave me a ride." Both boys shake their heads disapprovingly.

"Would you rather I skip school?" I ask.

"I'd rather you call an Uber, or call me? I'd prefer if you didn't get involved with that guy." Caleb says.

I grimace, "I'm not involved with him, and even if I was that would be my business."

"Yes, but you are my business."

"Our business." Isaiah corrects.

I roll my eyes, "Yeah yeah whatever dads."

When we finally arrived at the boy's place, I was surprised to discover that they lived in a house. "How many of you live here?" I ask.

"Five."

I gulp, a house full of five boys. Fun.

I follow behind them into the two-story home and I'm immediately hit with the smell of burnt fish sticks and smoke. The fire alarm was sounding off and three boys could be seen waving magazines and t-shirts in front of the smoke detector. Caleb and Isaiah enter and immediately begin helping the boys. I watch, not sure what to do until it finally comes off.

"Noah! Dude, you burnt all of them!" A guy with dreads exclaims.

The man in a towel assumed to be Noah frowns, "I asked you to watch them while I was showering!"

A tall guy with a full beard joins in, "You were showering for age!"

Caleb frowns, "How come every time we leave you guys alone you attempt to burn the place down!" He exclaims catching their attention.

They all begin arguing and Isaiah yells, "Shut the hell up! You're being rude to our guest!"

All heads finally turn to me and I wave, "Nice to meet you all."

"Who's she?" The one with dreads asks.

Noah winks at me, "She's cute."

"This is our cousin, Amina." Caleb says. "And she's off-limits." He says averting his gaze to Noah who pouts.

"You can call me Ami." I add-in.

"I'm Oliver." The one with a beard says. He had a dark caramel complexion and a clean haircut.

"I'm Will." The one with the dreads says. He had a darker complexion and his dreads were short and stopped by his ears. He also had a beautiful smile.

"And I'm Noah!" The curly-haired one looks down and realizes his current state, "I'll be right back!" He rushes away making me laugh. He returns soon after with some basketball shorts and a T-shirt.

"Would you like some fish sticks?" Noah asks presenting me the pan of burnt fish sticks. Will pushes it away, "I'm ordering pizza."

Pizza arrives pretty soon and I hang out and get to know the boys while eating. I still felt icky since I didn't get to shower this morning, but I didn't want to go home yet. It felt fun over here and the guys were really nice.

"You look familiar." Oliver states randomly.

I shrug, "I'm not from around here."

He chuckles, "None of us are. I'm from Houston." He points to the other two, "Noah is from the bay. And Will is from Inglewood."

Noah looks up at him, "Aww you remembered."

Oliver hits his head, "Shut up."