Braver Than I Used to Be

Chapter Fourteen

"Yeah, sorry guys, these are my sisters." He pointed to the curly haired girl, "This is Vivian." He switched to the girl with the straight hair, "And this is Adriana."

We all shook hands and the girls stared at Ray.

"Just a reminder, he is a minor." Victor told his sisters.

We stood there and talked with his sisters for a little while. They asked us about our upbringing and how we managed to be so close without driving each other crazy. We gave them vague details about our childhood but did tell them our bond was so tight because Ray stepped up as more of a parent when our parents were going through things. Ray and I took turns telling our different parts of growing up and they looked between us amused. Then they asked about how Matthew and I met. That was when Matthew took over and told the story of us first meeting in the movie theater and the history with Ray.

With each story came more questions from them. I liked them, they were nice to us and seemed to take a liking to all of us and took us around to meet their family while Victor went and greeted his friends from his old school. When they introduced us to their mother she hugged us thanked us for volunteering to drive Victor to and from school. Ray being the one who drives reassured her it was okay and that we didn't need gas money when she offered. She was very sweet and looked way too young to be anyone's mother.

Eventually they brought us back around to Victor and his friends. There were five of them. He introduced us all and I almost instantly forgot their names, I just knew three of them were girls and two were guys. I think one girl was named Jenn and I think I heard the name Joey for one of the boys.

"You've been at school for two weeks and you only managed to make three friends?" One of the girls laughed.

"Let me tell you, when I started school, all I heard about were these three." He pointed at us. "She was dating him, she got into a fight with her brother, her brother beat up her boyfriend and now they are all best friends and the girls can't stand her and the boys want her. The girls want both of these guys but no one can have them." Victor pointed his finger between each of us as he told them.

"You two got into a fight?" A girl said pointing at Ray and Matthew. I recounted the long history between the two of them and the events of the last fight.

"So now you guys are cool?" One of the guys said.

Ray and Matthew both nodded. "A lot of things have happened over the last few months. Once everything was out in the open, it was easier to accept that my baby sister was going to date this guy. He makes her happy and that's what I want for her. Can't be mad at that."

"But dude, aren't you mad he came at you like that?" The same guy said to Matthew.

Matthew shrugged, "Nah, I expected it would happen when he eventually found out. The more time I spent with her, the less I cared about what he might do. And I knew if I couldn't accept her brother, then I couldn't be with her. We all moved past it." Matthew said.

"The funny thing is, after everything was said and done, they actually get along really well." I told them. "Even if they won't openly admit it."

"So how does Victor fit into this?" A girl said.

The three of us looked at him and we laughed. Victor told them about his quest to find out information about me and his plot to get me alone. He, thankfully, left out the part about my freak out and just said that he respected my relationship and so on. Victor's sister, Vivian, came and asked all of us if we were going to dance. I could tell the alcohol was getting to her and I was on my second cup so I went with her and Matthew came along.