Starbird

Chapter 12

“I thought writer’s aren’t allowed double negatives.” Mom stuck out her tongue and told me to shush, in short she knew I was right. Then I heard the door slam shut downstairs, echoes of shoes being thrown off and people running up the stairs reverberated up the stairwell. “Boys are here.” Mom said, turning the stove back on to quickly heat up the meet as I put the tortillas in the microwave for a few moments. 

“Hey Mom, hey Cam, where are the tacos?” James quickly planted a quick kiss on my Mom’s cheek and my head before searching in faux desperate need of a tortilla.

“Oh you know, just heating them up because you freakin’ took forever to get here.” I strained each word, hoping they would get the point.

“James, where’s Liam?” Mom asked, noticing there was no other boy in the area. Just then, a muffled oof was heard from the stairs.

“Liam, you coming?” James called from the kitchen, grabbing a warmed up tortilla and starting on his taco. I slapped his hand.

“You can wait until everyone is here. We had to wait. So will you.”

“But Cammie, I’m hungry.” James whined. “I worked all day long and now I need sustenance.” I rolled my eyes. “Liam!”

“I’m here, those blasted boots wouldn’t come off and I tripped coming up the stairs.” I snorted. “Shut up, it hurt!” His British accent making him sound like a little boy who had a boo-boo. 

“Well, tacos are ready. Help yourself.” Mom pointed towards the food and Liam dove right in with James, loading everything in. I always found it interesting how certain people made their tacos. Whether it was meat first, then toppings, then sauces or the other way around. It was fun to question their sanity if they did it differently than you as well. 

“So Cam, you were a popular topic today.” James mentioned as he chewed on the end of his taco.

“Oh goodness, do I even want to know?” The answer was yes, I really wanted to know what they were saying about me.

“It was mostly about your reaction when we carried you to the tub and how you almost hit me in the face.” Liam said. “And how we cuddled last night.” He winked. Mom choked on her taco.

“Excuse me, what?” 

“We never cuddled!” I could feel my face burning from the blush that was easily taking over my face.

“Keep telling yourself that babe.” Liam said while James just laughed at my reaction considering he actually knew the story.

“I’m sorry, someone mind explaining to me what happened?” Mom’s face was filled with confusion, but there was a slight glint of humor in her eyes.

“Nothing happened. He’s lying, we never cuddled.” 

“You know he likes saying this stuff to mess with you, right Cammie?” James told me.

“Just because I’m aware of that fact, doesn’t mean I can ignore what he’s saying.”

“Should I be worried right now?” Mom asked, desperate to know exactly what went on.

“Nah, Liam was having a midnight snack and Cam had the same idea. They didn’t do anything.” James clarified. 

“That better be all.” Mom muttered, biting into her taco.

“But yeah, everyone was mad at us that we didn’t record your reaction. Even our director wanted to see it and he doesn’t even know you.” James continued on with how I was the popular topic.