Ebony Sky

*Chapter five*

"How could you not tell us about this Larry?" Dmitri gritted out, clearly frustrated. All the boys and me were circled around Larry, who seemed very unaffected.
"Look, the views will skyrocket if you say that the whole family is playing the games, I didn't see why you'd get upset. It's not like she's going up there stark naked or anything. My job is to make sure you guys get as popular as possible, and in this case that meant promising Ebony. It's really not a big deal."
I mentally sighed. Anyone who truly knew my brothers, knew they were extremely overprotective of me. Saying that it's not a big deal is like poking an entire family of bears awake, shaving their cub, and then telling the bears to calm down. It's not happening and you should start running.
"Larry, your job is to book us movies, or interviews, not Ebony. You're not her manager. From now on, anything concerning Ebony gets decided by me, and me only, got it? I'm her guardian, not you." Dmitri was dead serious, so even though he clearly didn't want to, Larry mumbled an okay and ran away.
Mitri sighed before looking at me. "I'm sorry EJ, we can't get out of this no matter what we try. Larry promised the whole Volkov gang, sister included." I smiled nervously. Nikolai put his arm around me. "Yeah, it'll be fine. Don't you worry about a thing sister. If somebody in the audience so much as looks as you wrong, I'll beat 'em up for you." I giggle, and they call Ivan, Nikolai and Dominick back for their interview portion. The rest of us head to the back room. I get on my phone to calm down some, but of course all my notifications are from my news app about the video. People apparently went crazy over it.
I put down my phone, feeling way worse than before. I see Dmitri looking at me and try to give him a reassuring smile. He just let me have a twitter and instagram, and the the only people that can follow me are my brothers and a couple old friends from foster care. Too soon, they call us on stage.
A guy quickly walks up to me and mikes me, and runs off without another word. They start the countdown until break is over, and Alex and Drew see how nervous I actually am. Drew side hugs me. "It'll be fine." He smiles. We all stand on the side stage and watch as Bobby stands in the main stage. The countdown ends and Bobby starts talking to the camera.
"Hello. Today we are here with the Volkov brothers, six crazy handsome males talking Hollywood by storm. That's right, it's Volkov Day! Now, everybody in Hollywood has heard about the crazy dare devil trait that seems to be abundant in the Volkov family. To test this theory, we have the entire Volkov family here, baby sister included, to play a game of Truth or Dare! The dares are rather tame for family friendliness, so don't worry. We wouldn't want any harm to come to our favorite family!" I start feeling a little excited. I love truth or dare, and I usually pick dare. I know my broken leg will prevent me from doing anything too crazy though. In the past our dares have gotten a little out of hand, like me daring Dom to jump into a river in the middle of winter.
Bobby comes over, and the game begins. It's actually really tame, and we only play two rounds. No big reveals are made, no one breaks a bone. It's pretty tame for a Volkov game.
"Because you chose DARE Ebony, you have to go through your text messages from your brothers and read your most recent to them." I nod my head and grab my phone to go through them. I start with Dominick.
"To Dominick the annoying:
If you touch my eggos I will personally I make sure you die a long, painful death." There were some chuckles from the crowd and I smile, knowing it just gets worse.
"To Ivan: --"
"Wait!" Dominick interrupts. "Why am I 'Dominick the annoying' and he's just Ivan? Not fair!"
I roll my eyes. "You're Dominick the annoying because when I first got my phone, you constantly made new rules for Dmitri to add to it, so it seemed fitting. Continuing on, To Ivan: Have you the twins?? I think we left them back at that gas station. More importantly tho, don't let Dominick steal my eggo." Dmitri chuckled and the twins looked insulted.
"What if you HAD left us at that gas station, you think your eggos are more impor--" I cute Drew off.
"Yes. 100%. No doubt in my mind. It's the eggo." Alex crossed his arms. "That's insulting."
"They were chocolate chip eggos."
"Okay, now it's understandable." They said in unison.
"To the Twins: Group message.
If you don't get on the bus in twenty seconds, I will tell them you guys are here and we will leave you. Not kidding, counting now.
To Nikolai:
Get your feet off my seat now. They stink.
To Dmitri: tell Nikolai to get his feet off my seat please, I don't think he understands the word soap.
To family group chat:
Whoever ate my eggo.
Death is coming. It will be painful." The crowd is full on laughing now, and I smile awkwardly. I don't know how I feel about this. Yeah it's fun with my brothers, but other wise it's kinda weird knowing strangers will know more stuff about my family.
**********
I hated being onstage and feeling judged, but I loved spending time with my brothers. I got on my phone that night, as every teenager does, and just browsed around for a bit. Eventually, I got curious and typed in my last name to the search bar. Even though I shouldn't have, I read some of the tweets about the show.

@Volkov_lover125:
omg Ebony is such a freak like seriously

@Thevboysaremine:
She doesn't even deserve to be related to them!

@DreamyDmitri:
I bet she's adopted. Either that or talent skipped her

@Volkov_lover125:
Omg yusss!!! It makes sense now!!!

@Volkov_lover125:
She's a freak

@DreamyDmitri:
I feel bad the boys are related to her...now they're stuck with her

@Thevboysaremine:
Not true, Dmitri could give her up for adoption

@DreamyDmitri:
Boy I wish

Any joy I felt about the show evaporated. The tweets only got meaner. I could hear my brothers getting ready for bed through the curtain material that separated my cubby from the rest, and tried to hold in the tears. This is their tour, and I refused to ruin it with my stupid feelings. I could suck it up for them. I feel asleep that night with a million thoughts floating in my head, but one was louder than the rest.
I will not be a burden to them.