brothers.

9~ Disapproval

"No, I'm not-"

"UGH!"

I leaned the phone away from my ear, wincing.

"Why do you always have to make everything so complicated?! Amy's gone, so move on! Tell her before it gets worse!"

I clenched my jaw, pushing down my anger. "I'm not saying anything. It's... it's none of her business," I said through gritted teeth. "She's leaving in six months, anyway."

I didn't want to go off on her. Sure, she did the same, but she was just a bit annoying and loud. Whenever I went off on her, she'd burst into tears. I didn't want to scare her like that.

But I really wished she could be more sympathetic about Amy. My God, hardly four months had passed since she died, and Shirley already expected me to just 'get over it already'. As she would say, it wasn't like we got along much, anyway.

In part, she was right. My— our— relationship with Amy had been tense in recent years, but that didn't mean we didn't love her. That didn't stop her from being our baby sister.

"Six months is perfectly enough for everyone at school to ruin our lives over this, Tommy. And she might even stay longer! It's gonna screw everything up for us."

"Oh, please, Shirley, this'll hardly involve you. The ones who'll be taking the brunt of the force is me and Harry, and you know it."

"Excuse me?! I'm your girlfriend, remember? I don't think I'll be able to handle being with you if people are saying so many things." As I feared, she started to cry. "I-it's not fair. You know I do a lot for you, right? I take damage when I'm with you, and I willingly take it because I love you. So many girls hate me because you picked me out of so many options..."

I sighed. I hated when she cried like this.

"We already have so little time together because of this... ghost twin foster rat. I don't want everyone at school to drive a bigger wedge between us. Don't let that happen. I can't live without you."

'Ghost twin foster rat'? That was... new.

"Okay. I... I'm sorry, Shirley. I love you, too, and I don't want you suffering because of all this. I'll... I'll talk to her, okay? I'll try to convince her."

Jack walked past my door as I spoke, stopping short and peeking inside.

She sniffled. "Okay. Love you, Tommy-bear."

I winced. Thank God Jack couldn't hear that. "I love you, too. Bye."

"Wait," she whined. "I called you Tommy-bear."

I hesitated, glancing at Jack, who smirked as he leaned on my doorframe. I glared at him and covered my mouth as I whispered in the microphone.

"Love you, Shirl-bear."

"What? I didn't hear that."

I sighed with dread, glancing at my older brother again. I seriously felt like punching him so I wouldn't see that stupid smile of his, but it would probably fail. I never got to land a good blow on him.

Amy did, though...

"I love you... Shirl-bear," I forced out.

Jack snorted.

"Bye!" Shirley hung up.

When I put my phone down, Jack burst out laughing.

"Shirl-bear?!" He leaned on the door and slid down to the floor, clutching his stomach.

"Would you stop? It's not like you and Amelia are any better."

"What do you mean?"

I raised a brow. "'I love you, babe', 'I love you more, babe', 'You're the best boyfriend in the world, Jackie', 'You're the most beautiful girl in the world, Ameli-baby'." I gagged and made faces.

Jack chuckled and stepped further inside. "It's still better than Shirl-bear."

"No, it's not. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard you arguing with Shirley, so I wanted to see what the hot gossip was about."

"I wasn't arguing with-"

"Tom, I know when you guys are fighting."

I glared at him and pretended to look at my phone. He frowned at me, his arms crossing. He had that knit between his brows. He always frowned like that when it came to Shirley.

I raised a brow at him. "Did you come in here just to stare?" I said.

"Tom... listen, I know you don't want to hear this." He approached me. "But when I heard you talking to her, I couldn't help but notice a little... pattern."

"What pattern?" I frowned.

"She seems to expect you to... I don't know, solve everything. Like right now. She wanted you to force stop Diana from going to school. I mean... you could try and convince her, but like you said, it won't do anything."

"You really like eavesdropping on my conversations, don't you?"

"You raise your voice when you talk to her. The entire neighborhood heard you," he remarked.

"Quit exaggerating."

"She just tends to be really demanding, that's all," he continued. "And really, what is she so worried about? Diana being in school won't affect her."

"Well, it might. She's dating me," I pointed out.

"Still, people won't be focusing on her. All she has to do is distance herself and that's it. Everyone will be focusing on you... well, all of us."

I huffed and stood, distancing myself from him. "Stop telling me something I already know! I know all this, okay?! Everyone at school will be talking about me, about Harry, everyone. Everyone." I held up my phone. "You don't want Shirley blaming me or name-calling me? You think she's so demanding?" I tossed it to him. "Fine. You tell her. Tell her you'll do something about it. That way, she can stop being so 'demanding' towards me."

I slumped back in my bed. Jack picked up my phone. For a couple moments, we were silent.

"Okay, you know what, never mind." He tossed the phone back to me. "I wanted to have a calm conversation, but I guess that's not gonna happen." He turned to leave.

"No, you just came in here to bug me. Like you always have."

"I just wanted to-"

"Forget it." I returned to my phone.

He stared at me for a few more moments before leaving. My eyes lingered on the ceiling for a while, my sister's face swirling in my mind. I got off my bed and looked down the hall at Amy's room.

Amy's room. Not Diana's.

If she didn't change her mind... if she went to school with us... we'd have to do our best to make her leave.

Now that you see more of the brothers, what do you think of them? Have you known a Shirley in your life, whether romantically or not?