My Older Brothers

45

I look between the kitchen and the living room before reasonably deciding to go to the kitchen to join Cole. 

When given a choice, I avoid my problems.

I turn around and start walking but then strong arms grab me and throw me backwards. I land on the couch where no one is sitting but fall off where Lane is playing some stupid math game on the floor.

"Get off me!" He says, pushing me away.

I stand up and look around for the person who just threw me half way across the room. Couldn't have been Katie she's still just sitting there staring at me. 

When I look at Martin my eyes narrow. He looking at me amused with his hands crossed over his chest.

"You." I point at him

"Hazel! I haven't seen you in a while. How ya been?" 

"I talked to you on the phone yesterday." I say

He laughs and walks over to me. He picks me up again and literally crushes me in a bear hug. "I missed my favorite sister."

"Yeah, well, she didn't miss you." I say, trying to get him off of me.

He sets me back on the ground and bends down so he can look me in the eye. I hate that he's so tall. I'll catch up to him one day. Hopefully.

"How are you feeling?" He asks in a hushed voice, with a serious face.

"Good. I just came back from the movies and it was so much fun. I have sour patch kids." I say, holding up the pack which I got from the movie theater.

Martin grabs them from me. "Thanks."

I glance at Katie behind Martin and look back at him with a questioning look. He stands up straight and puts his hand on my back, pushing me forward. 

Katie gives us a small smile and then looks down at her hands.

"Katie's parents are out of town and Kalani isn't home either. Her parents called mom to ask if she could stay here for a couple of days and she said yes. We figured she could cheer you up a little." Martin says

They figured wrong. Last year mom turned the guest room into an office so that probably means Katie's going to be staying in my room with me.

Katie doesn't say anything to me. Cole calls us to come get dinner and this time we don't sit at the table. I wasn't really that hungry so most of my food magically ended up on Kade's plate.

That's what he told to say if Cole asked.

I went straight to my room after I was done and Katie followed. I opened my bedroom door and turned on the lights before walking over to my bed.

I had a pull out bed so I pulled it out and went to the closet in the hallway to get two pillows, and a towel for Katie.

"Here you go." I say as I hand them to her.

She'd been over before so if she needed anything else she knew where to find it. 

"I'm going to take a shower right now. You can turn on the TV." I say before heading to the bathroom with my pjs.

She nodded and sat down on the pull out bed. As I walked away realization hit me.

I was treating her like a friend. Not a best friend. It felt strange, not one of us had cracked a joke and that's strange especially for Katie. 

After my shower, I dressed up and went back out into the bedroom. Katie was watching Mickey Mouse and when she saw me she stood up.

"Hazel, I'm so sorry." She blurted

"For what? Did you break my remote again?" I say, pretending that I don't know what she's talking about.

"No, I mean I'm sorry for being mean to you. I don't know, I was just really upset because Riley told me all this stuff and I thought she had proof and... I should've believed you." She says

"It's alright." I sigh, "I don't really care anymore."

She smiled slightly. "Thanks for forgiving me. I missed you."

"Are you still friends with Riley?" I ask

"I don't think so. I mean I don't really want to be friends with her. That girl is seriously obsessed with you. Like with everything you do." Katie says 

"What do you mean?" I ask, frowning my eyebrows.

"I told you not to sit with us because Riley said it would make her uncomfortable but the whole time she just wouldn't stop talking about you. She knew everything about you, from where you lived to the fact that you were in the hospital. She was even the one who told me that you were in the hospital." Katie says

That's a little... weird.

 "And she also said you said a lot of bad stuff about her but I didn't think that was true because you'd never say the stuff she said even if you hated someone. You're just nice, you know?"

"Mhm." I hum, deep in thought

"Then she told me that she liked Sam, I was like wait a minute , Hazel like Sam." Katie continues

"As a friend. I liked him as a friend." I say

"Sure."

"Then what happened? What made you change your mind and realize I wasn't lying?" I ask

"She's just like her sister. She's great at lying but once she thinks she's got you reeled in, her lies get more extravagant. It got to the point where most of the stuff she was saying just sounded like crap, so I asked her to stop lying to me and she actually told me the truth." Katie says

"Really?" 

"Yeah, she told me everything like about the birthday gift and the other lies. That doesn't make her a good person because she also said that she only told me the truth because I was useless to her. Can you believe that? Useless? Me? That's one real Bi-"

"Okay Katie calm down." I say, stopping her from cursing, "Why did she call you useless"
Katie thought for a bit before shrugging, "I honestly don't know."

"I didn't know Sam and Riley knew each other." I say

Katie bites her bottom lip and nods. "Yeah, they do. I think they're a couple now. I saw them holding hands at the park."

"I saw them kissing at the park." I say

"Maybe you should talk to him to see what's going on." Katie suggested

"Maybe." I murmured, knowing I wasn't going to. 

"How are you and Andy doing?" I ask, changing the subject.

Katie blushes."He's cooler than I thought he was. We went to my sister's soccer game the other day and it was so much fun. I got to sit by him instead of my noisy parents. Even my dad acts like a soccer mom."

I laughed. "Your parents are very dedicated fans I guess."

Katie rolls her eyes dramatically. "You should have seen them, all decked out in school merch like they were the mascots. In fact, they out shinned the mascot. Gosh, I'm glad not many people at that college know me. My life would be over."

"I'm glad my parents aren't like that." I laugh

"Your parents at Kade's football games says otherwise. Do you remember..."

We spent most of the night talking about different people in our families. Katie's story telling is something else for sure.

I haven't laughed that hard in a while.

(A/N: Happy Holidays everyone!)