Gracious

Chapter 33

"My brothers are tiring pieces of shit", he gave it to him straight and I snorted, Caleb and Chase chuckled while Alexander hummed.

"Tell me about it", he said and I narrowed my eyes at him, "that was a joke". It was hard to tell, with his stoic facial expressions and basically monotone voice.

"You grow to be more and more like your brother every day", Marco said, craning his neck to look at me, "any peppermint tea? Poor hospitality cousin". I rolled my eyes, stepping back and rummaging in the cupboard knowing full well I didn't harbour such poison in my house.

"He's like Zane? Please, Xandy is in a league of his own", Caleb chuckled, pulling the fourteen-year-old into a headlock, "in a good way".

"Call me that and I'll beat you up", he swore, wiggling out of our brother's grip and standing.

"You love me really", Caleb flashed him a grin, "and remember who can box".

"And remember who can box", Alexander mimicked him, earning him a laugh from Chase and Prescott; the slight lift of Marco's ears signalled that he was smiling too, or smirking at least.

You had a better chance at seeing a unicorn than seeing Marco smile.

"We're leaving in five, go and find Xavier", I told Alexander and he nodded, leaving the room in the blink of an eye, "are you joining us for the ride little cousin?".

"Little?", he scoffed, rolling down his sleeves and standing, "I'm not doing anything else". That settled it then, he was joining us for the school run...

~

"It stinks Xav, move away from me", I rolled my eyes, not even glancing over my shoulder as the twins bickered in the backseat.

"It doesn't stink, it's just popcorn", he defended himself, crunching away behind me, "tell him Zane". Marco looked at me, smirking when I rolled down the window in reply; Alexander laughed hysterically while Xavier huffed in annoyance.

I was just happy to hear my youngest brother laughing to be honest.

"They're just as insufferable as Eli and Zeke", my cousin muttered, shocking everyone by just pulling out a fucking gun from his trousers and inspecting it.

"Woah", Xavier gasped, their argument a thing of the past, "why do you have that?".

"Took the words right out of my mouth Xavier", I sent a glare to my cousin and he surrendered, dropping the weapon into his lap in an instant.

"It was hurting my leg", he defended himself and I rolled my eyes, "you two don't need to let your little legitimate heads worry about me". I slapped his head and he scowled at me, focusing his gaze out of the window soon after- he may expose his brothers to all sorts of shit, but he wasn't doing the same to mine.

"What's legitimate mean?", Xavier asked and I huffed, I'd beat the shit out of Marco when these two were out of the car.

"Nothing", I replied, "I was thinking of taking the two of you to the ice rink on the weekend". I wasn't, but I knew that would take at least Xavier's mind off of the topic at hand.

"Finally!", he exclaimed, "you know I'm better than both of you on the ice".

"I'll still kick your ass on the ice", Alexander insisted and I rolled my eyes, always violence with that boy.

"Can you ice skate Marco?", I glanced at my cousin briefly, quickly enough to see the break in his usual emotionless expression; he scrunched up his face and shook his head.

"I see no reason for me to move around on frozen water with blades on my feet", and people said I was the formal one.

"You speak like Zane", Alexander said, making my face fall, "you sound boring".