Amatory ✓

29. Angry red blotches ~ EMMETT

"Oh, right, I forgot we were doing that," Jamie said.

"We can just hold hands," I suggested.

He shrugged. "Fine by me."

"You guys are boring," Phyllis sighed.

I rolled my eyes. "I don't know what you were imagining, Phyl, but I'm not gonna make out with my boyfriend in front of my brother, if you don't mind."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I'm glad you don't make out with him in front of anyone," she said, before muttering, "Unlike some people."

Lily didn't seem to notice the glare she received after those words, but Hector sighed, "We didn't even know you were there."

"Case in point. Can't believe I'm the blind one... Speaking of which, where's the elevator? I'm not climbing any stairs today. I'm too lazy to look where I'm going."

I offered her my arm and led her to the other end of the hall to press the button, and a minute later, we were all standing in front of my brother's door. With a smile, I reached for Jamie's hand again and rang the doorbell.

The moment the door swung open, I got a whiff of freshly made food and my brother appeared in the doorway with a wide smile on his face. It faded a little when he saw us, eyes growing wide with surprise, but it quickly turned into a knowing smirk. "Touché, you cheeky little shit."

I bowed my head. "Thank you."

"Please come in, everyone. Samantha has spent far too much time in the kitchen for everything to go to waste." He stepped aside to let us in and offered Jamie a hand. "Hi, I'm David. It's very nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too. I'm Jamie."

"Ah, you're Jamie! I seem to recall a certain conversation pertaining to your name."

I rolled my eyes, knowing he was talking about Christmas, when our cousin had relentlessly teased me about Jamie, and I had insisted that I wasn't into him and that I wouldn't go out with him just because he also happened to be gay. David must be very amused by this change of events. I think it was safe to say it was quite obvious that I was, in fact, into Jamie. Honestly, sometimes it was hard to keep myself from just staring at him all day. He was too cute for this world.

I couldn't help but smile as my brother talked to him and our friends. I had only come here with the intention of surprising him, but I realized it actually felt nice to introduce him to them. I'd never really had people that were important to me like they were. I was never so close with the people I was 'friends' with in high school.

As David moved on to greet Hector, I craned my neck to get a look inside his apartment, but I barely saw the light gray carpet and the black couch, because on that couch sat none other than my aunt Henrietta.

"Dave, why the fuck did you invite Henrietta?"

He let go of Hector's hand to turn around and followed my gaze. "Well, uh... I didn't. I wanted this party to be for just some friends and our parents, but Mom told her I was moving into a new place and... you know how it goes. She got nosy and invited herself."

"Great," I muttered. I wouldn't even mind so much if she hadn't already seen Jamie and I coming in brandishing rainbows. She had a distasteful look on her face, but she'd quickly looked away when I met her gaze, with her chin up, as if she had anything to be prideful about. I wanted to smack that high-and-mighty expression right off her face. "You know she's gonna be glaring all day."

"I can ask her to leave," Dave offered.

"Ask Henrietta to leave? Yeah, that'll go over well," I scoffed. "I can handle it."