Breaking The Ice

Enough

TJ's POV

The ride seemed to go by way too fast, and before I knew it we were pulling up the long driveway to my parent's estate. It was a huge, over the top, grossly unnecessary sized house with sprawling gardens and all of the pretentiousness you would expect from my mother, and no matter how many years I lived there or how often I visited, it never felt like home.

We'd moved there when my dad's company took off, Louis and I were 11. The years before that had been painfully normal, living in our middle-class neighborhood as my brothers and I ran around climbing trees and getting muddy, playing in the hockey rink my dad had built us every winter. We were a family, a unit, and once we moved into that stupid house everything changed.

I knew that Harry knew my family had money, in fact most hockey players came from families who were middle to upper class. It wasn't a cheap sport to play, gear alone costing a lot more than other sports, so most families who struggled financially couldn't afford to put their kids in it. Still, my parents' home implied that we owned half of Chicago, and I hated the idea that that house was his first impression of my life outside of school.

I sighed as Louis pulled up and parked, and we'd barely had time to get out of the car before I heard the squeals of my mother coming out of the front door.

"There they are!" She squeaked, waving her hands around as she came over to my brother as if she just couldn't wait one more second to hug him. "My handsome boy is home."

I rolled my eyes at her as I made my way around to the back of the car where Harry was already getting out our bags. He shot me a wink as he took my bag from me, and my mother appeared seconds later to embrace him.

"Harry! How are you, Sweetheart? I'm so happy you could come and spend the holidays with us!" She said excitedly, clasping her hands in front of her as she pulled away.

"Thank you for having me, Mrs. Tomlinson." Harry smiled politely, always the diplomat.

I did my best to smile as her eyes shifted to me, immediately looking me up and down before she sighed.

"Tara." She said shortly. "Nice to see you've dressed up for the occasion."

I didn't even bother to look down at my jeans and converse sneakers, just shooting her back a fake smile.

"And it's nice to see nothing has changed around here." I said.

She huffed as Harry looked awkwardly between us, before Louis appeared to help us with the bags and she didn't feel it was necessary.

"Now you boys must be hungry, let's get you inside for something to eat." She said as she wrapped her arms around each of them. "Tara, you can bring the bags in, yeah?"

I rolled my eyes at her just as Harry escaped her grip and came to help me. My mother looked at him like he had two heads as I smiled in satisfaction, before Louis did the same and came to stand beside me.

"We'll be right in, Mom. We're just gonna take our stuff in." He said sweetly, before my mother gave him a look of disapproval and practically stomped back into the house.

"Can we go now? Has it been four days?" I whined. "Cause it sure feels like it."

"Oh, quit your bitchin!" A booming voice came from behind me, and I immediately felt excitement take over my entire body as I turned around to see my brother, Richie, standing there with a grin on his face.

"Dickface!" I yelled as I launched myself into his arms.

He scooped me up, chuckling into my ear as he spun me around, before he put me down and pulled away to look at me.