Having Lena back is just the best. Well, so I thought, until she spent her every breathing moment about how god awful the weather is here compared to back home. A comment which didn't best please Collins, less so me when she corrected herself, saying that home is wherever he is.
Jesus, if Hendrix ever pulled that shit on me, I'd punch him straight in the face.
For the past week, no one has suspected anything. We've been going about our business, maintaining a healthy hybrid of spending time in school together and apart, ensuring that we're not always entirely nice to one another, though I can't say that our spats are exactly forced. As much as I like him, and as much as I'm becoming very content with kissing him whenever I want, he still does my fucking head in.
I've spent many of my evenings at his house, for the kisses and the food, and Tanya is just a doll. Honestly, she's so nice. Offering to take me shopping, telling me how Hendrix was when he was a little shit of a nephew running around naked because he hated the feeling of pants. She's just fantastic. What's better, I love to see Hendrix embarrassed.
My constant absence from home hasn't gone unnoticed though. Both Oli and Ezra have questioned me on multiple occasions and each time I've blown them off. I might think they're both stupid, but they're certainly not ignorant. They know that a written project doesn't require me to visit Hendrix every evening after school for four or five hours at a time. They're like hawks; nothing gets past them.
So, more to save myself the questions, I've decided to come clean about Hendrix with my brothers following the quick and brief discussion with my parents, which went about as well as I expected. When I had told them Hendrix and I were dating, my mum went absolutely nutty, taking about how wonderful it was and my father, well, he decided I needed a reminder on the benefits on contraception.
If you think that's bad, I reckon question time with my brothers will be far worse. For Elijah - I plan on making myself scarce as soon as I drop the bomb.
Besides, it's his birthday tomorrow and if they find out that I've gone out on a date with him and not mentioned anything, I'll definitely be shunned until Christmas. Which really, I'm not entirely sure is all that terrible. Why did I think this is a good idea again?
"Wolly, Ezzy, come in here a minute?" I ask. I'm sat on the sofa, wringing my hands, sweating profusely. I just thank god that Ben isn't here right now. He is twice as scary as these two.
My brothers have always been protective of me, what with me being the youngest. Introducing them to Adam was perhaps the scariest moment of my life. However, I was only fifteen when we started dating so they deemed it all sorts of wrong, claiming that I wasn't even old enough to know what a relationship consists of. I'm still scarred from the conversation. You know, getting the birds and the bees talk from my brothers certainly wasn't something I'd ever asked for.
I'm older now, which is a point in my favour, but considering Adam turned out to be a cheat that broke my heart, I have a suspicious feeling that tomorrow, they're going to go twice as hard on Hendrix, more so considering that me and Hendrix have sort of hated each other to death for the past ten years.
Might not have been a brilliant idea, in hindsight.
"What's up Diabla?" Oli asks as he walking in with a can of beer in one hand, a cake roll in the other. I'm convinced that all this boy does is drink and eat shit.
"I need you to both sit." I tell them. Their expressions harden. It's almost like they have a radar. They just know when a conversation is serious and like most, they instantly assume the worst.
"Charlotte Esme Osborne if you're going to tell me that you've got a bun in the oven, I swear I'm going to flip my shit." Oli begins, placing down his comfort foods and scowling at me, cracking his knuckles for effect.
"What? No! I'm not pregnant. Literally, will never be pregnant! Need I remind you what I saw when Aria was born?" His expression softens considerable and he settles back on the sofa, though Ezra is still looking at me suspiciously. "Right. You have to promise to not go crazy. And promise to let me finish what I've got to say." The pair of them nod and I exhale, jiggling slightly as a nervous wee comes around. Here goes nothing.
"Right," I begin slowly, my gaze flicking between the pair. "So, I'm going on a date tomorrow." I pause, waiting for them to go against their word and interrupt me. They don't. "We've only been seeing each other a little while and we're not exactly sure what we're going to make of it yet, but when he comes to pick me up, I need you to not completely hound him with questions and scare him off."
No words are spoken. "Erm, did I just say that out loud or..." I trail off.
"Who is it?" Ezra asks calmly. Ezra is scarier when he's calm.
I choke out an awkward laugh. "Funny story. It's actually Hendrix. You know, my ultimate enemy Hendrix?"
Oli narrows his eyes at me. "He promised me he wasn't touching you." He says.
"He wasn't!" I cry out, making both of them widen their eyes.
"Wasn't?" Oli echoes loudly. Oh shit.
"Isn't! Still isn't!" Oh my god I think I've got pit stains. "We've just – we had to spend a lot of time together during this project and things sort of, evolved." I tell them loosely.
Oli stares at me for what feels like an eternity. "You better invite him over then." He says simply.
"Right now?" I practically squeak.
"Right now." He confirms. I roll my lips into my mouth and hold my breath.
"Okay," I drawl, reaching for my phone slowly to text Elijah, scared than any sudden movement will startle them into a frenzy. "Just remember that he was super lovely when he was over here the other day. Playing Fifa and drinking beer." I remind them. "And also remember that you're my favourite brothers."
They don't smile.
Good luck Elijah.
~
"Charlotte I'm really shitting myself." Hendrix says as soon as he climbs out of his car. I bounce slightly on the heels of my feet and try to offer him a look of condolence.
"It's be fine!" I tell him, though I'm betrayed by my nerves. Oli and Ezra are just protective, they've never stopped me from doing what I want, in this case, Elijah Hendrix, but I really don't think I can settle for six months of judgement from either of them. "Let's just be polite, contact to a minimum, and maybe don't mention how you're hoping to see me naked at some point."
He looks at me like I'm deluded before taking a couple of steps forward. Before I can move, he presses a chaste kiss to my lips and then gestures me to go first. I have the biggest smile on my face now because hell, I don't think I'll ever get used to him doing that.
"They're in the living room." I tell him lowly, waiting while he kicks his shoes off before I take the pair of us into the living room where my brothers wait. They're hardly terrifying, but I think dealing with the big brothers is always a daunting experience. "Oli, Ezra, you've met Elijah."
"Elijah now?" Ezra asks.
"Well, he's always been Elijah." I tell him, adding an awkward forced laugh as I sit on the sofa beside the boy in question.
"He was Hendrix a few weeks ago." He points out.
"Po-tay-to, po-tah-to." I mumble before flashing him a grin which he doesn't return. "Point is, this is him. And you've met before. And he's super nice."
"We'll be the judge of that." Oli says. I roll my eyes at him and cross my arms.
"Oli be nice. Let's not forget that you're hardly the relationship guru." I snap at him. He narrows his eyes to slits but I can finally see the amusement in his expression. Oh, so they want to play this game, huh? The pretend scary brothers who hound us until we both shit our pants.
The pair turn their attention to Hendrix who looks like he's sitting on a chair of nails. "We didn't like Charlie's last boyfriend, you know?" Ezra tells him.
Elijah smirks. "Neither did I. It's why I headbutted him a few weeks ago." I snort. Literally snort so I have to clap my hands over my mouth and nose, paranoid I've just spat everywhere.
"You headbutted him?" Oli echoes.
"I did. All in your sisters honour, of course." He exclaims.
"Tone it down." I mumble from beside him, fighting back my enormous grin.
"How long has this been going on?" Ezra asks, pointing his finger between the two of us.
"A couple of weeks," Elijah confesses, "though I've liked her for a while."
They say nothing, just keep their eyes on the pair of us, studying us with scrutiny. "You're sure this is going to work? You hated each other for a long while." Oli says.
"We're going to try," I answer, "so we would just like you to accept that so that he's not terrified within an inch of his life when he comes over here." They watch me for a moment, dwelling on my request.
Oli turns back to Elijah. "You hurt my baby sister and I'll run you over with my car. Twice." He threatens.
"Understood." Elijah says with a nod. Oli grins then, back to his normal self.
"Great! I'll get you a beer and we'll get started on telling you every embarrassing thing Diabla has ever done in her life!" Oli jumps up and heads to the kitchen, as does Ezra, clapping Elijah on the back as he passes.
Hendrix looks positively thrilled, having passed the first hurdle and what not. I grab his face and plant a swift kiss on his lips before looking at him seriously. "None of these stories are true. I definitely did not get a marble stuck up my nostril when I was five years old because I thought it would give me magic powers."
He furrows his brows at me. "What?"
"Exactly," I kiss him again. "Utter nonsense."
My brothers return, settling in the living room as if the conversation just mere moments ago had never even occurred. With their newfound hospitality, Elijah seems to settle too, throwing caution to the wind and placing a hand on my thigh, brushing his thumb along the material of my joggers. I think it's a bit brave to do in front of someone's brothers, but Oli and Ezra don't even seem to care. Neither does Hendrix. He's a contact whore I've come to learn.
In fact, Ezra keeps glancing at me, smiling as if he knows something I don't. It's nice actually, seeing my brothers get on with the person I'm seeing. If that's what we're calling it. They've spent so long desperate to kill Adam, it's sort of a breath of fresh air.
Elijah seems comfortable too, relaxed in the sofa with a beer in his hand, one hand on my leg which I've swung over his, giving me enough room to lay out on the sofa. I'm more that content. This is just so nice, so easy. I'd have never though that Elijah and I could ever be something other than enemies, but this comes to us so naturally, now I don't know how we ever were.
I'm not going to say that these past ten years were a cover up, us hiding our true feelings and intentions. That'd be a big fat lie. I just know that these past ten weeks, something between us was uncovered, albeit, not smoothly, and now, I'm so unbelievable content. Baby steps, I'm sure, but I think, this could really work to be something.