Bound Together (editing)

Chapter 25

Maybe I’m going crazy. There’s probably something in this room that’s giving me hallucinations. The aroma of the food being cooked was unusual, so unusual that I forgot what an actual home cooked meal smelled like. I had just been standing by the opening of the kitchen for the past 5 minutes per say, when I heard the front door slam shut. Heavy footsteps came my way, “What’s going on here?”

My eyes glanced over at Cameron from where he was standing next to me, “Apparently, we’re having dinner together, all four of us.”

He raised his eyebrows at me, than looked over at our mom, who was standing by the stove, stirring some sort of liquid in the pot that was boiling. His eyes landed on dad, who was sitting on a stool by the countertop, papers almost filling the whole marble built area, which wasn’t much of a surprise.

“Uh, why are we having dinner together?” Cameron asked, more directly towards our mother.

She turned around, wiping her hands on the apron she was wearing over her clothes, “We’re having the Reynolds family over for dinner.”

This caused my eyes to widen, probably looking like they’d pop out any minute from now.

“Why?” I replied a bit too harsh than it was suppose to sound.

From the sound of my voice, our dad lifted his head from his paperwork, “Because Alexandria, we’re helping Mr. and Mrs. Reynolds on a confidential case, and they thought it would be a good idea to see how our family household is, since this case that we’re handling with them involves their entire family, so in order for them to actually trust us, they need to see that we are family oriented people.”

To my surprise, his tone of voice wasn’t as cold as it always was, but it really bothered me that he was just going to trick Jayce’s family into thinking that our family is the closest tight knit group of people in this town.

“But we’re not a family dad,” Cam pointed out.

Both of their heads snapped up at the sound of this statement. Mom’s lips frowned a bit, she sent Cam a guilty look, “I understand the way you’re feeling Cameron, but maybe this will be something good for us, maybe this will bring us closer together, closer than before actually. I know work gets between us all, so I’m hoping that this case can bring us together, as an actual family.”

“An actual family?” He questioned as if he couldn’t believe it, “We will never be an actual family mom, no matter how hard you try, you just can’t decide that we’re going to act like this perfect family that is happy together, because I’m not happy with this family.”

I looked over at my brother, behind his rough and tough façade, he held in pain. Something he felt since he was a child.

“Just please get ready kids, they’ll be here any minute,” Our mother urged, turning back to the stove.

I went up the stairs, with Cameron trailing behind me, probably scowling at how useless this little “family” dinner is. He purposely stomped his way towards his room, and sighed extremely audibly from where I was in my room. Whilst getting myself ready for tonight, I couldn’t help but be a little bothered by all the slamming and thudding sounds from Cameron’s room.

Huffing in annoyance, I stormed over to his room and barged in, not bothering to ask permission if I could come in, “You know, you better be careful because your inner teenage girl is showing. Might want to cover that up don’t you think?”

In response I got a pillow to the face, “Shut up, I have the right to be upset.”

He paced around his room, shoving random things in random drawers, something he’s been accustomed to do whenever he was upset about something, “They think that we can just eat there being all civil, as if we’re some real life family who cares and loves each other, that’s total bull Alex.”