Our Little Secret

Background

We're all at Michael's house and Marissa's asleep on the couch and the rest of us are gathered in the kitchen, after having ordered fried chicken and pizza (We couldn't agree on one topping so we got half chicken half pineapple).

As I'm munching on a slice of chicken pizza, Michael comes from checking on Marissa and makes a disgusted face at the chicken half of the pizza pie, and then says to me and Aiden, "Y'all tweakers. Out here putting chicken on pizza."

"Says the one putting pineapples on pizza," I say back. Aiden high-fives me, grinning. "Like who does that?"

Drew comes downstairs from his room and grabs a slice of chicken pizza. Michael and Xavier look at him with looks of disgust. "That's your brother?" Xavier asks Michael.

"Not anymore." He bites into his own slice. Drew flicks him on the forehead and goes to grab a soda from the fridge.

"Did you do your homework?" Drew smirks. He's only partially asking to embarrass him and partially cuz he actually cares. It's always been the two of them since their parents died.

It was five years ago, in the beginning of middle school. His dad had gotten a seizure and they'd been driving back home from the hospital, when suddenly a semi truck slammed into their car, killing them. I remember how heartbroken Michael was over it. Drew was 19 at the time and so Michael moved in with him into his little apartment.

"It's Friday." Michael rolls his eyes.

"Ok. And?" Drew snickers and leaves the kitchen.

Sometimes I envy their relationship and how easy-going they are with each other, unlike me and my older sister, Sarinna. She's 20. The age gap between us is only 3 years but it feels like more.

Xavier hops onto the kitchen counter and slaps his hands together "Ok gang!"he says "now what?"

"Now," I say. "Y'all throw away that nasty pizza and give your taste buds a rest."

"Bro, do you want some?" Michael asks waving a slice of his nasty pizza at me.

"I-" he cuts me off before I can say anything.

"It's okay. I wasn't gonna give it to you anyway," he says making a face. "You don't even deserve to taste this deliciousness."

"Trust me I'm good," I tell him, finishing off my second slice of pizza and helping myself to a third.

Xavier's phone buzzes on the counter I look At the caller ID: MOMMA💞🤞"Your ma's calling, Xavier" I tell him, holding his phone out to him.

I've met Ms. Babaneauex a couple times, she's always super sweet and caring. I remember she always used to show up at school functions back in middle school and even drove Xavier to homecoming freshman year. She always calls to check on him whenever he's out (he likes to complain about it but I know he doesn't actually mind.) He's the oldest of four kids; he has two little brothers and one little sisters who I think are precious. They're always so excited to see me.

I've seen his stepdad a couple times but only talked to him like once, he's a Mechanic and owns his own auto repair shop where Xavier sometimes works for a little extra money, so when I go over to his house his stepdad is usually at his shop.

He snatches the phone out my hand. "Shhh," he puts a finger to his lips and looks around. "You can't be saying my business aloud like that, anybody could hear." I roll my eyes at him. He answeres the phone. "Hey, Ma."

"Hey, Ms. Babaneauex!" Aiden goes over Xavier's shoulder. Xavier shoves him away and walks outta the room. Aiden shakes his head, smirking. "What a Momma's boy."

"You're just jealous because your momma doesn't care about you like his does," Michael pokes at him. Aiden just in reply. He doesn't argue much.

He lives with his parents and two sisters so arguing has only ever made things worse for him. His older sister, Lamiya is super pretty and currently engaged to his soon to be brother-in-law, Daniel (which I guess is good for him cause there'll be one less girl in the house). His little sister, Celeste is thirteen and super crazy. She's on the basketball and track team at her school. I've been to a couple of her games, she's super energetic and gets into more than her fair share of fights. Basically she's everything Lamiya isn't, but still. When Aiden and his sisters are together they never miss a chance to make ridiculous jokes at his expense and Aiden is just terrible at comebacks.

I grab him by the arm. "Let's go make sure Marissa is still alive."

She's sprawled on the couch, knocked OUT. Aiden shakes her lightly. "Mar--" she rolls over -- smacking him in the face in the process-- and starts snoring. Aiden steps back nodding and rubbing his cheek. "Yeah. I think she's alive."

"I can't believe she got drunk like that tonight," I say, looking at her blonde self.

Marissa has always been the wild card. She lives with just her dad. Her mom has never been in her life and I think that might be a reason for her wildness. She doesn't really get along with her dad, she's always complaining about how ridiculous he is and how he treats her like a twelve year old when she is a "young woman".

I kinda feel bad for him. Mr. Evans always looks like he's going through something and with a daughter like Marissa, he probably is. And he's had it kinda tough, having to raise two girls on his own.

Marissa's older sister, Mikayla is a year older than us. She's a lanky white girl with short cropped hair, dyed beach blond and a lip ring. I see her around at school sometimes but her and Marissa barely acknowledge each other's existence but according to Marissa, she's basically moved in with her college boyfriend (who she met at a party a couple years ago and is like 24). So I guess I kinda know where her craziness comes from.

Xavier pops his head into the doorway. "Y'all wanna go now?"

"We just gonna leave her?" Aiden asks.

Xavier shrugs. "Might as well." We get to grabbing our things and go to say bye to Michael. He just nods, his face full of pizza. So Xavier drops me and Aiden at our houses.