Highly Inappropriate

52.

I rolled to the other side of the bed, not bothering to grace her with an answer as I pulled my pillow over my head. Of course though, my lack of response resulted in loud footsteps approaching my room in a matter of seconds, the sound of the door swinging open causing me to silently groan.

"Alex, what the fuck? You're gonna make us late.", Jess huffed, pulling the covers away from me and giving me what I could only imagine being a death glare.

"Nope, you're making yourself late.", I deadpanned, pulling the pillow away from my face and meeting her puzzled look. "I kept my grades up in order to graduate, like you asked. I'm officially done with high school whether I attend the ceremony or not. I'm not going."

"Oh you're fucking going Alex, I don't give a shit if I have to drag you there.", Jess snapped while tossing some clothes on my bed along with that hideous graduation gown we were supposed to wear. "I'm done watching you do this to yourself because of-"

"Don't.", I mumbled, averting my eyes away from her as I felt myself getting upset all over again.

Yup, I was still at that stage: I couldn't even bear to hear her name.

"Fine, I won't. I'm sorry.", she apologized, her voice immediately softening. "But you're in desperate need of tough love right now and that's exactly what I'm going to give you, you dipshit. You need to get your shit together and get out of this fucking house, you hear me? I know you feel like your life is over right now but that's a thousand miles away from the truth. As you said, we're officially done with that hell hole and I'm not, I repeat, I'm not walking on that stage without my best friend, for fuck's sake. You're coming, and you're gonna plant a smile on your face and have a good time."

"I'd rather get hit by a train Jess.", I sighed, pulling my pillow closer against my chest.

"Fine, you don't have to smile if you don't want to.", she reasoned, causing a weak chuckle to escape my lips. "Pretty please? I also forced your brothers to dress up for this stupid thing, you know how much bribing and convincing that took me?! Jesus, even Sparky's wearing a bow tie!"

As if on cue, Matt and Chase appeared behind her, both wearing a suit as my little brother barged into the room, jumped on the bed and attacked me, repeatedly poking me in my sides and tickling the shit out of me.

"Chase stop!", I squealed, barely managing to breathe in between giggles.

"Not until you get out of bed.", he replied with a cheeky grin.

"Seriously bud, stop!", I repeated, this time with a hint of seriousness in my voice.

"Ugh, fine.", he huffed, crossing his arms against his chest with an annoyed look on his face.

"Come on sis, Jess is right..", Matt chipped in, earning a silent thank you from my best friend. "You need to get out of here and start enjoying your life once again."

"Going to graduation is your idea of enjoying life again?", I snorted, shaking my head. "Damn bro-"

"Baby steps?", he frowned with an encouraging smile. "I'm wearing a suit for fuck's sake, and you know how much I hate wearing suits. Besides, my big sis is finally graduating!!", he cheered, unfazed by my unimpressed expression. "You know how big of a deal that is?! You yourself know that you could've easily dropped out of school in order to take care of us but you didn't. And you didn't because you wanted to finish your studies for yourself but also because you wanted to set an example for us. And with that being said, I want to see you walk on that stage and scream your name to the top of my lungs, embarrassing the shit out of you."

I wanted to come up with a snarky remark but I had nothing. Instead, I stared at three pairs of expecting eyes while a resigned smile made its way to my face.