Dance In The Rain

~30~ Bossy

Julianne's POV

A week goes by, and Holden is still acting weird. He's letting literally everything slide, and basically letting us do whatever we want.

Normally it would be amazing but this just feels so, so wrong.

Gage still talks to me in the hallway and in Holden's class, but hasn't said a single word about what happened with his brother.

And my crush is getting even deeper the more times we talk.

We walk into the house after school and Tate throws his book bag down in the middle of the floor.

"Tate, can you pick it up, please?" Holden asks tiredly as he sets his own book bag on the table.

"No thanks, Tate says in a bored tone as he walks into the kitchen.

Holden looks at him, but sighs in defeat as he goes to get Tate's book bag and puts it on the table next to his.

"Why are you being so mean to him?" I whisper, and Tate shakes his head at me.

"Stop, Julianne," he says in a weird tone as he watches Holden with frustration and something else. Sadness, maybe?

After a long moment of Tate simply watching our brother open his book bag and get out a folder to grade, he goes to the pantry and gets out a bag of BBQ chips.

He sits on the counter and starts to eat the chips, obnoxiously crushing them and making crumbs scatter on the floor. He's making such a mess, that Holden finally looks up from grading with a disgusted look.

"What is with you? Clean up the mess, dude."

"That's your job," Tate sneers as he jumps down onto the floor and stomps all over the crumbs.

Holden just looks at him with a blank expression as he goes back to his grading, and Tate's jaw drops for just a second before he masks it to indifferent.

Tate puts the bag of chips on the counter and simply goes to our room, shutting the door.

I sit next to Holden and work on my homework, and after a while he gets up from the table and cleans up the chip mess.

~*~

We eat dinner in complete silence, with Tate watching Holden like a hawk. I'm not sure why but as the silent dinner goes on, Tate is looking more and more pissed.

"Will you guys help me with the dishes?" Holden asks as he stands up walks over to the garbage can, scraping the rest of his hamburger helper into the trash.

I immediately get up and start clearing, but Tate sits in his spot and simply stares at Holden. It takes Holden a minute to notice, but when he does he raises his eyebrows.

"What is going on with you?"

Tate laughs an EXTREMELY dangerous laugh as he shakes his head in exasperation. "What's wrong with me?!? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!" He screams so loudly, I drop my plate and it shatters once it crashes to the floor.

Holden looks between me and Tate, unsure of which crazy to address first.

Holden decides to focus on me first. "Step around it and go grab shoes. I'll clean it up," he says gently as he focuses on cleaning up the broken glass and not our brother.

Tate watches in complete astonishment while Holden cleans up the plate, and it isn't until Holden stands back up and stares at Tate does he speak again.

"What is it going to take, Holden?" Tate asks as he finally stands up and walks over to him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Holden snaps.