Falling Into Sunday

26- I Am Yelling

“So you and Benson are a real thing now?” Emmett wonders on Sunday as we’re sitting in the game room, playing the new Grand Theft Auto game. Emmett thinks GTA is a stupid game but I like it so sometimes, like today, I force him to play it with me so that I don’t have to play alone.

“We are,” I confirm with a nod. “Boyfriend/girlfriend, hand holding in public, the whole thing.”

“I thought you were still hung up on Nate though,” He says, obviously a little bit confused as he tries to understand my mind.

I shrug even though he’s looking at the screen so he can’t see me. “I was until I realized that I wasn’t.”

“What?”

I sigh and roll my eyes at my clueless brother. “I’m over Nate. I have been for a while, I just didn’t realize it until a little while ago. We’re friends now, me and Nate, but that’s it.”

“You’re incredibly confusing, Vi,” He informs me as he’s beating up the driver of an SUV so that he can steal it.

“Okay, well you don’t have to understand everything, but just understand and accept that me and Benson are dating. Officially,” I pipe as I start a random fight with some guy on the street because I’m a thug.

“I have to accept it?” He whines. “I think it’s really weird. I mean, I guess I’m happy for you and everything, it’s just weird to me.”

“Well, I guess you don’t have to accept it, but you do have to get over it because it’s happening,” I shrug. “I think he’ll be good for me.”

“I don’t think Benson is good for anybody,” Emmett mumbles under his breath and I’m not sure if I was supposed to hear that or not, but I obviously did.

With a small laugh, I roll my eyes at him. “You don’t even know him that well. He’s a good guy.”

“He’s a player,” He counters.

“You were a player before too, if I recall correctly,” I mention, reminding him of his promiscuous years of high school before Christmas of his junior year when he pretty much calmed down. Eli continues with his gross ways of one night stands, but Emmett grew out of it, luckily. “But now you’re with Natalie. Are you saying that you’re a bad guy?”

“It’s different,” He argues.

“It’s not different. People change,” I inform him. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I like him. A lot. I love you to death, Em, but I don’t need your approval.”

“I know,” Emmett agrees. “I just don’t like it, is all.”

“Yeah, okay,” I mumble just as the front door opens downstairs, which is super suspicions since Eli is out with friends and he just left about an hour ago so he shouldn’t be back for a while and my dad is at work. He’s been working pretty hard lately since he is adamant about being involved in the case against Sam and Cole but he also has to balance his busy schedule being the governor as well.

“Who’s that?” Emmett asks me as if I’m supposed to know who’s entering the house right now.

I shrug. “I have no idea.”

“Dad?” Emmett calls out the door so loud that his voice carries down the stairs to whoever is coming in the house. We didn’t lock the door, so it is probably Lexi or Benson or Natalie or one of Emmett’s other friends stopping in for a surprise visit.

“No, it’s me,” My mom shouts back up the stairs.

Both me and Emmett frown immediately upon hearing her voice and then Emmett turns off the Xbox and we both hurry downstairs to see what she wants and why she’s here. I don’t want her here. I know that I’ve been trying out this whole ‘forgiving’ thing with Eli but I can’t do it with my mom. Sure, as an older brother, Eli should protect me from bad things happening but, ironically enough, he’s the reason that they happened. And I’m still mad as hell at him for what happened that night but he was on some serious drugs and he regrets the whole thing so I have decided to give him a shot at forgiveness. However, my mom is my mother. She has to protect me- that’s her job as a mother. But, she took their side. Made me feel like it was my fault. She was incredibly selfish- never even thought about what I felt or wanted or what I was going through. After that night, she was the first person I went to but she mentally scarred me from telling anybody else ever again. And she was sober. It might not make sense, but to me, what my mom did was way worse than what Eli did.