𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐋𝐮𝐬𝐭

15

"You're like Wednesday Odin, why can't you stay out of the grownups conversation?" Carmen groaned.

"Any conversation you're in Carmen is not 'grownup'." He said, inverting the word grownup with his fingers.

"That's why you were a fucking mistake." She spat halfheartedly, kicking him in the shin when he began throwing popcorn at her.

This was so normal for the both of them that our parents on the further side of the plane didn't even cast a glance our way.

"You-you...that's why mom loves me more." He exclaimed proudly after his very embarrassing stuttering fit.

Odessa and Galina sat beside us on the opposite side of the aisle, their attention solely on them. Galina, forever the instigator sang, "I know he didn't."

Carmen huffed loudly in irritation, returning the favour by splashing some of her sparkling water on his lap, shutting him up instantly. Good thing the seats were leather.

"You psychopath!" He shouted, getting up from the chair in haste, his lap soaked. Carmen got up from her seat and stalked to the bathroom, not casting a glance back at us.

From the lounge in front of us, Vera glanced over the book she had been buried in since take off, rolling her eyes at the seen and going back into her own world. My other sisters laughed, their eyes following Odin as he waddled to the bedroom at the back to change his shorts.

As the bedroom door slammed shut, Carmen fell back into the seat beside me, the ends of her hair damp with water.

"What happened to you?" I questioned, as she reclined in the chair, grabbing Odin's forgotten bag of popcorn from the center table.

"I needed to cool off before I kill someone." She grunted out, around a mouth full of popcorn.

"As we were saying, I know someone who is just dying to be with you." She continued, a impish grin marring her face. The mood changes in this family would give a normal person whip lash.

"I'm not interested." She turned to Galina, continuing and ignoring my brief comment.

"You know who I'm talking about too." She said, smiling mischievously. My jaw ticked at the thought, my irritation worsened when Galina grinned like the fucking Cheshire cat realizing where she was going.

"We should have invited Aria." Carmen said, faking disappointment as she mimicked Galina's dramatic pout. I groaned loudly, turning away from them and looking out the window to the pitch black sky.

Aria was Ambrose's daughter who we saw as family just as everyone else even thought she wasn't related by blood. That one little fact made my life a living hell.

Since we were children, she has been trying to get my undivided attention. I could never see Aria more than another cousin, who I genuinely have love for, nothing else. Besides her incessant need to be my girlfriend, her personality was likeable. To me she never had a time where it was questionable, because she was always a very quiet, laid back person, unlike Galina and Carmen.

"Don't act like that, she just has a crush on you." Odessa teased, her smile of mischief saying she believed otherwise.

"Just a crush is an understatement." Vera whispered loudly for us to hear from behind the book her eyes never left the pages of.