Before you go // Jonah Marais

Chapter 4: "What on earth happened?"

As expected my mother was sitting at the table waiting for me. I give her an apologetic smile, walking into the kitchen to grab myself something to eat. When I make it back to the table I sit down and she clears her throat.

"I thought I made it clear this morning I asked you to be home early."

"I know, I'm sorry, I was talking with someone and then I fell asleep, I was planning on coming home early, I really didn't mean to mum" I apologise.

She stares at me with a blank expression, she's clearly upset with me. I look down at my food, then back at my mum asking for permission to start eating, she nods handing me the salt and pepper shakers. I eat in silence, my mothers glare burning holes into my skin.

"I said I was sorry mum," finally, breaking the silence, I look up at her.

"I know, I'm just disappointed," she sighs, "Everyone is in the living room, feel free to join us after eating."

She stands and leaves the room, leaving me alone. I eat my cold food, cleaning up the table and washing the dishes. A gush of cold air comes through the open kitchen window, I wrap my arms around my body, grabbing Jonah's jacket that is placed neatly on the counter. I slip it on feeling instantly warm, I take a deep breath, the smell of Jonah filling my nostrils, something is comforting about the smell. Shaking the thought from my mind, I continue to clean up, it's the least I can do, considering I came home late.

My sister and her boyfriend must be here, I can hear her voice as I get closer to the living room. Slowly opening the door, I see my sister laughing with my dad, her boyfriend Dylan looks at her like she is the most beautiful girl in the world like she is the only one he sees. I wonder if Nathan looked at me like that, I wonder if Nathan looked at me like I was the only girl in the world.

"Peyton!" My sister exclaims,

"Hey, Liv," I smile as she pulls me into a hug.

Olivia moved away for college 5 years ago but moved in with Dylan after they graduated. She comes to visit us occasionally, like for birthdays, thanksgiving, Christmas, but last year she spent it with Dylan and his family. I'm not sure why she's here, my birthday was in May, May 17th to be exact, and her birthday isn't until November. I pull out of the hug and turn to Dylan, who's now standing next to Liv.

"Hey Dylan," I smile and pull him into a hug.

I always love seeing Dylan, he's like my brother, if I had to choose him or Alex I would choose him, but I would never tell Alex that. Alex and I have always been close since he's only a year older than me, I was always closer to him rather than Olivia. However when Dylan came into the picture, it was like I had a new toy to play with, he would let me put makeup on him, paint his nails, or do his hair.

"Why don't I get a hug every time you see me?" Alex pouts.

I laugh as I pull away from Dylan, "I hug you every time you come home from Uni."

As kids, Alex and I would stay up late looking through brochures online about different universities. We did this for a month until we landed on a New York University brochure, we fell in love with the university. Since that day, Alex and I knew we both wanted to study there, however, we both made a promise to be happy for the other person if one of us didn't get accepted.

My father clears his throat and smiles as he holds up a deck of cards. I shake my head with a smile knowing where this is going. My dad is very competitive when it comes to any games, he does not like losing, yet no matter how many times we call him out for being a sore loser he denies it.

"I'm going to shower quickly, start without me," I say jumping up leaving the room.

I try to avoid playing games with the family, as I suck at everything we play. I can hear everyone laughing as I make my way to my room, I grab my short yellow pyjama pants and Nathan's black Chicago sweatshirt. I tie my hair up in a bun before stepping in the shower, the hot water runs down my body, clearing my mind. I do the usual shave where needed then grab the soap running it over my body washing it off afterwards. I hear someone come upstairs and knock on the bathroom door.

"Are you dead or are you coming down soon?" Alex chuckles from outside the door.

"I'll be down in a second, go get some food for us so we can watch a movie" I reply turning the shower off.

I hear Alex mumble 'yes mum' before walking back downstairs, giggling I grab my towel and dry myself off before changing. As I'm walking down the stairs I hear a loud crash, then someone yells 'fuck,' quickly I walk into the kitchen to see Alex on the floor with broken glass around him. He had a cut on his left arm, a piece of glass stuck in the arm, not a big piece just a small one.

"Alex, what on earth happened?" I frown.

I manage to manoeuvre around the glass, grabbing the dustpan and broom from under the sink cleaning up the mess. After cleaning the glass, I take Alex upstairs into my bathroom, making him sit on the toilet while I grab some stuff to clean him up.

"Something fell in the sink, which scared me enough to run into the wall and drop the glass" he explains.

I grab my tweezers leaning forwards a little as I grab the glass pulling it out of Alex's arm. He winces in pain, looking at the glass I place on top of some toilet paper. I grab some betadine placing it on a bandage, then placing it over the cut.

"Now that you're all cleaned up, let's go watch a movie" I smile.

Alex chuckles, grabbing my hand leading me downstairs. All the couples were cuddling, waiting for us to start the movie. Alex lays down giving me room to get comfy, I send a goodnight message to Nathan as I do every night before turning my attention to the movie. It wasn't long before I fell asleep.

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Not a very exciting chapter my apologies but meet your older sister and her boyfriend :) Hope everyone is having a good day peace out lovelies.