meesha_lora I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU. meesha_lora *mwah* the new cover.
---
Silas sat in the driver's seat, this being his car and all; Zaiden sat in the passengers seat, applying some eyeliner to his eyes and Zach sat in the back with me on the right side behind Silas' seat. I was directly behind Zaiden so I could see everything he was doing in the car mirror.
I tried to stop staring at him but I couldn't help but be enticed by his eyeliner. I'd never seen a boy wear eyeliner before and Zaiden pulled it off really well. Whilst he was applying it, I sort of had one of those moments of realisation. I had a really cool brother.
In fact, all my brothers were cool. They had these cool rings which made me want one and Zaiden had this cool black nail polish on and now he had cool eyeliner. I wondered if I'd ever paint my nails like his. Because they looked so cool.
To prevent myself from getting caught being nosy, I averted my gaze to outside where I started counting all the lamposts we passed. I got to thirty seven before I began listening in to the conversation being held.
"Zaiden, connect me to the speaker," Zach said from his seat, not taking his eyes off his phone and whatever he was scrolling through. Zaiden huffed, clicking his eyeliner shut and stuffing it in his front backpack pocket, "no, you have shit taste."
"Language," Silas scolded, glancing back at me through the rear view mirror but when he saw I was already looking, nervously, he fixed his gaze back on the road. "And give it to him Zai. He's got better taste than you. I don't want to drive listening to bloody Justin Bieber."
Zaiden looked highly offended and spun to face Silas, face scrunched in disgust, "oh that's low and so not true." I bit my lower lip to prevent the chuckle escaping me; from the corner of my eye, I could see Zach looking over at me to see if I was finding this just as funny as he was.
Silas kept his eyes on the road and smirked lightly, "oh please." He looked at me again through the rear view mirror, his smirk increasing when he saw me trying to keep my mouth straight. "You just don't want our sorellina to know that you're a belieber," he over-pronounced his 'b's purposely to mock Zaiden further.
Zaiden glared and looked back at me. I almost jumped at the speed he spun his head around at and quickly looked back out my window, biting my lip even harder to prevent myself from laughing.
I swore I felt Zaiden's glare which lasted five seconds, until he turned back around, mumbling a, "whatever." He, begrudgingly, reached out to click the "bluetooth speaker" on the touch screen that was on the console.
Loads of names came on, "Silas' Phone", "Brayden's Phone", in fact all of my brothers' names were on there, including Jacob's and Mika's. Zaiden flicked once down the short list to the bottom. Zach's name was second to the bottom above- wait. Was that my name?
Right at the bottom said "New- Brynn's Phone".
I could be connected to the speaker if Silas or Zaiden wanted me to? Woah, that's a lot of responsibility.
Whilst thinking about all the mistakes I could make with this newfound responsibility, Zaiden pressed Zach's name and a song title came up.
Silas reached over and turned the volume up. Nobody spoke for the rest of the car ride, except when Zach kept getting my attention to show me the song he was putting on next. I didn't know any of them but I just gave him an approving nod and smile, which made him smile back. He had great song taste.
This car ride was going better than I thought it would.
---
Alas, the quietness only lasted until we pulled up at this huge building.
There was a large main building with a big stone staircase leading up to the double doors.I could see, from where I was, at least five other buildings not connected to the main one. How big was this campus?
Silas was going through all these twists and turns in the immense car park. He reversed into a spot that was right next to the entrance. It was like it was reserved for him, there were hundreds of cars passing the spot and people avoided it like the plague.
He stopped the car and stepped out, as did Zach and Zaiden. I reached down to get my backpack and went for the door handle. Before I could pull it, however, the door was already being opened by Zaiden, who was looking at anything but me.
"Thank you," I mumbled, getting out. He didn't respond and just shut the door behind me, Silas locking the car once I'd exited.
I tried to get a good look around at all the students which were littering the campus, who were mostly looking at us with fear and curiosity, but Silas had other ideas because he stepped in front of me and used his thumb and pointer finger to raise my chin to look at him.
"Rules. No wandering off. If you have a problem, you come find one of us. If someone messes with you, you tell us," he listed as I tried to keep up with everything he was saying. If you could just give me an hour or so to process one at a time-
"And you sit with us at lunch. No exceptions. Understand?" I guess that wasn't so bad. At least I'll be by people I know instead of being a loner at a table by myself.
"Enough, Silas. She understands, don't you love?" Zach came up from behind him and gave him a look, then looped his right arm around my shoulders. "Let's go get your timetable, hm?" The last part seemed to be more directed at Silas and Zaiden who were watching and listening intently and with weird looks on their faces.
"Lets go then," Zaiden mumbled and walked to the entrance, followed by Silas and me and Zach behind.
We passed through the students that were crowded on the steps by the entrance, even though they all scattered once my brothers came close. Those who were brave enough to peep from behind the steps walls, gave me confused looks- some even looked mad.
I played with my nails as we made it to the main office. In the middle, there stood a large, circular desk with three office ladies and one man all sat at their respected desks.
There was a lady dressed in a grey suit and long skirt at the printer in the corner of the room. She looked around about forty with greying hair and had a height of 5'7
When she heard the door shut, she turned around and saw us entering. Her eyes widened and her breath hitched as she snatched the piece of paper she was printing and hurried over to my brothers, whose faces had morphed into stone. Like usual.
"Miss Verlice's timetable," she handed Silas the sheet which he took off her swiftly. I frowned at his lack of thanks.
As she turned around, I spoke up, leaning forward slightly and picking at my nails, "thank you."
The lady turned around, looking shocked but gave me a smile nonetheless.
"Right, I don't have anything first period so I'll give you a quick tour while you two go to class. Then I'll take you to your first class, which is English," Silas informed, leaving no room for argument.
Zaiden didn't even say anything as he left as soon as Silas had finished. Zach kissed the top of my head and mumbled, "be good." Walking out, backwards, he also added in a, "and stay out of trouble!" with a smirk.
I'll do my very best.
I stared at where he left, not even getting a second to turn around to Silas before I was being pulled forward by my backpack by him.
"Oof!" Was my first reaction to being moved so suddenly. Silas wasn't phased and just kept on walking, his grip not loosening one bit.I had to jog a little to keep up.
Silas showed me most of the campus, mainly pointing things out. Well, mainly just him pointing at stuff and grunting things out.
The main building consisted of the English, Maths, Languages and Science classrooms. It also had the giant lunch cafeteria and main hall. The other six smaller buildings consisted of another library, which was mainly used for some students to eat lunch and do homework, a sports hall for P.E, a science block for experiments, a performing arts department, a music studio and an art block.
And in the middle of all of it was a huge football field with bleachers surrounding it.
This was officially the biggest school I'd ever seen.
Silas walked me to my first class, which was in the main building and I knocked on the door myself before he managed to. I needed to prove to him that I can do things by myself and I was perfectly confident-
Oh my god the door's opening!
A man, who looked around mid-thirties standing at about 5'10, opened the door. He had mocha skin, light brown eyes, brown hair and a friendly smile, putting my nerves at ease a little. "Ah, Miss Verlice I presume?"
He and Silas seemed to share a look between them. It only lasted a short second before I answered him by nodding. Silas looked like he wanted to scold me for "breaking rules" but technically, those rules only applied to my brothers and I wasn't answering to one of my brothers right now.
I had to refrain the smug smile. Loophole.
The man smiled at me again, looking away from Silas, "I'm Mr Laurier, do you want to come in and find a seat?" I peeked up at Silas for reassurance, his hard face unhardened slightly as he placed a, surprisingly, gentle hand on the top of my back and pushed me forward.
Not saying anything more, apart from, "see you at lunch," he walked away, presumably to his second period.
Now I was left with Mr Laurer. And an entire class. And find a seat. The thought made my heart rate quicken and massage my knuckles and fingers, nervously.
Mr Laurer, on the other hand, didn't seem bothered in the slightest by my hesitance. He just stood there, giving me a sympathetic smile and holding the door whilst I stepped into the classroom.
Thankfully, not many people looked my way, except for a few on the front rows whom looked up for a second and then looked back down at their worksheets. So far, so good.
The classroom had a whiteboard, smart-board and Mr Laurier's desk at the front, along with four columns and four rows of desks; there were two seats per desk.
Mr Laurier closed the door and came to my side, "take a seat anywhere you can find one, Brynn. There's more at the back."
I gave him a small nod and thanked him, making my way to the back rows. There was a free seat right in the back, on the right hand side by the window which I intended to claim as my own.
Right as I was walking down the aisle, a foot came out from the right, right in front of my own; thank god I was looking down at my feet otherwise I wouldn't have noticed them.
I looked up to see the owner of the foot with an expensive brand of shoes and saw a boy with shaved hair, muddy brown eyes and a horrid snarl on his face. I just gave him an odd look and moved on, he was probably just having a bad day or something.
I put my bag on the back of my chair and sat down, looking out the window.
Apparently he didn't agree with just leaving it at that though because the second I sat down he spun around in his desk and leaned over onto mine. I scooted back into my chair a little freaked out.
"Was that Silas Verlice out there?" he questioned, sneering my brother's name out.
"Why do you want to know?" It didn't come out as confident as I'd anticipated, a bit shaky but I furrowed my eyebrows to show that I wasn't nervous, even if I was secretly picking at my hands.
"It was, weren't it? What were you doing wiv 'im? You're not wiv 'him are you? I didn't think the Verlice brothers would ever-"
"Mr Donover, I hope I'm not hearing what I think I'm hearing," Mr Laurier came from behind him. The boy's eyes widened and he whipped around, "no, sir."
Mr Laurier hummed and didn't say anything, walking up to me and crouching at the desk. He placed three worksheets down and laid them out before me.
"Okay, these are just some texts we're studying at the moment, some Shakespeare and Charles Dickens," he explained whilst placing his hands on each sheet. "Have a go at doing some annotations right now. Don't worry about anything you can't do or don't know, that's what I'm here for. If you need me, just pop your hand up and I'll come right over," he finished off, smiling.
I smiled and nodded at him, he was nice, much nicer than any of the teachers at my old school. "I will, thank you."
"No problem," he said and then stood back up and walking to the boy's desk. He tapped on his worksheet twice saying, "come on, you're somewhat intelligent enough to do some simple annotations." The boy nodded grimly and picked his pencil up and wrote more as Mr Laurier made his way back to his desk.
When he was sat back down, the boy turned around again and spoke in a lower volume, "so are you their girlfriend then?" I just ignored him and continued my work, it'd be pointless to say anything back, clearly he's not one to have intelligent conversations with.
"No, don't tell me. Sister? You look exactly like them. Man that's insane, I can't believe they actually have a sister. How come no one's ever seen you before? Were you hidden away in that creepy mansion of theirs? Or did they not want you? Did-"
"Malcolm, I get you're obsessed with their family, but this is pushing it, isn't it? You're starting to sound like your brother," I whipped my head to the desk next to me, where a girl was sitting. Her hair was in a low ponytail and she was writing as she was talking.
The boy, Malcolm, glared. "Shut up, Penny, no one likes you."
The girl, Penny, didn't give any more attention to him, only packed up her pencil case, gathered her worksheets and English book and stood up with her backpack. What was she doing?
She came over to me and dumped all of her stuff on the other side of the desk, along with her backpack on the back of the chair and herself on the actual chair. I played with my hands and she just smiled at me before continuing her work.
I guess she sits here now.
Seeing as Malcolm wasn't getting any more attention, he rolled his eyes and turned back around to annoy the person next to him.
I got my pencil case out my bag and got a pencil out to start the Shakespeare worksheet. I bit my lip, I'm not very good at Shakespeare.
Out of nowhere, another worksheet was slid to my side. I looked up at Penny curiously, "you can copy my ones if you want. They're not very good, but it's something."
"Thank you," I said, sincerely, "Shakespeare is like another language to me." Penny chuckled which made me do the same.
After a few more moments, she spoke again, "are you really their sister?"
I looked at her, nervously, whilst she looked like she wished she hadn't said anything. I didn't want her to feel bad and I definitely wasn't ashamed of being my brothers' sister so I nodded.
She let out a breath of relief, "cool." I smiled.
Cool.
---
The rest of English went by great, we had it for one hour then I had Biology, which I fortunately shared with Penny. I really liked Penny and she told me about her other friend, Aubrey, whom I met at break time. Aubrey was just as sweet as her and we were all in the same form.
At break, we spend time in our form classrooms doing whatever we'd like for half an hour and we took that time to play 21 Questions, which, considering I didn't even know how to play, was fun.
Afterwards we had Maths, then French. I'd nearly forgot I had to meet my brothers until Aubrey invited me to sit with them at lunch.
"We don't really go to the cafeteria, we sit in the library at the back where there's tables. It's peaceful so no one bothers us and if we're lucky, the librarian falls asleep." I smiled thinking about it, but declined.
"No thank you, I have to meet my brothers. I'll ask though," they both gave me smiles as we stood up and packed our bags to leave French. "Okay then I'll see you again in Maths in fifth?" Penny said, with a grossed out look on her face. I didn't blame her, it's math.
I chuckled, "yeah, can't wait."
Before we left the class room, however, Aubrey pulled a scrap piece of paper and her phone out of her bag and told us to wait. I eyed what she was doing as she scribbled something on it. When she was finished, she handed it to me, "our numbers." I mouthed "oh" and had a look at them.
"We'll make a group-chat with you tonight."
I smiled inwardly at myself. I've never been in a group-chat before.
"See you later, Brynn," Penny gripped the back of Aubrey's shirt and they both left the classroom, me laughing whilst trailing behind them.
When I left the classroom, I came face to face with Zach who was leaning against a locker. He had a bored facial expression which soon morphed into one of happiness when he twirled around the come directly in front of me.
"So? How's it going? Have people been nice? Do I need to call Zayne? Beat any one up? How are your teachers?" he rambled on, shaking my shoulders a little.
"Zach," I held his wrists from where they were sat on my shoulders. He silenced. "It was great."
And I'd meant it. Everything was going great.
That was until lunch. It wasn't horrible or anything, I was just uncomfortable. Zach spoke to me nearly the whole time which was comforting, but we sat at a huge table with all half of the attention of the lunch hall.
We also sat with their friends, who were actually quite nice. There was Derek, Isaac, Cam, Phil and Kenji; they didn't speak to me much which I was grateful for, but they did say hi and asked how my day was going so far.
Callan had packed me a ham sandwich, doritos, grapes and a water for lunch and Silas almost caused a scene when I couldn't finish my sandwich. But, as luck would have it, the bell rang just before he could draw attention to us.
I stood quickly and swung my bag around my shoulder, about to walk to maths yet I couldn't go anywhere as Zach pulled me back. "Come to the field after class because we all have P.E and that usually goes on quite longer. Usually we'd get Callan or something to pick you up, but they're packed at work."
I nodded, "yeah okay."
"You know where to go, right?" Zach inquired. I nodded again.
"Silas showed me." Zach seemed to be fine with that answer and let me walk away, not before speaking out again, "you know which way to go, right?" I just turned and gave him two reassuring thumbs up. He mimicked my action and then left the opposite way to go to his class.
Arriving at maths class before anybody else was a great choice. Hardly anyone was there, apart from the teacher and Penny, whom had taken her designated seat at the third to the back. She smiled when she had seen me enter, to which I returned with my own. I walked past her to my own seat behind her. She swivelled around in her chair to rest at the front of my desk.
"You'll never guess what happened in the library today," she whispered, trying not to get the attention of our teacher, Ms Gren.
I was never one for gossip, but part of me was happy that Penny wanted to share something with me. Me. Nobody's ever wanted to gossip with me.
I gave her a questioning look. She began to stifle her giggles which only fueled my own and I didn't even know what had happened.
"So we were sat by the bookshelves at the back and, all of a sudden, Malcolm came in with his older brother, Sid, who by the way is absolutely obsessed with your family, especially Zaiden," I was fully invested in this story now, particularly by the mention of my brothers.
"And they were talking about something and us, being us, were being nosy and listening in when we heard your name being mentioned. We don't know what they were saying, but it couldn't have been good. Anyways, Aubrey lent a bit too far forward and knocked all of the books from the shelf and they all landed right on the two of them," she almost had tears in her eyes when she continued, "they thought it was a ghost. They were both running around like 'ah someone help' and 'ah this place is haunted."
She used funny, dopey voices as she spoke which caused me to laugh and snort behind blazer sleeve. Ms Gren had obviously heard it because she cleared her throat at the front, giving us a look from over the book she was reading. We both silenced but looked at each other once again, causing us to laugh behind our hands.
By the time we'd finished our conversation, people were piling in, making me go a little nervous. Some people continuously looked my way to ask me or mime to me about my brothers. I just ignored them and kept my head down.
When maths was over, Penny said goodbye and I made my way to the football field, where my brothers' P.E classes were. I walked towards the bleachers and was met with the site of at least forty boys running laps. I kept my distance because with the speed they were all going at, I'm pretty sure if I got in the way I'd be obliterated.
I didn't just want to stand there awkwardly, but I had no clue where to go. Do I just stand in the bleachers entryway until they're finished? What if people laugh at me because of how awkward I looked?
Fortunately, Zaiden saw me and broke free from the group, jogging up to me. He was dressed like the rest of the class- black shorts that go down to his knees, plain black trainers and a black hoodie with the school logo on the top left side.
"Come here," he muttered and began climbing up the bleachers to the very far left corner. He stopped in front of three black bags which had blazers on top of each of them I presumed they were all my brothers'.
"Now just sit here and don't move," he commanded. I sat next to all of their stuff and stayed quiet. What was I supposed to do now?
Zaiden looked reluctant to leave and kept looking at me and then to his bag, raising his arm to tug at his hair a little. Eventually, he hauled his bag up and aggressively opened the zipper and shoved his hand in, pulling out what appeared to be a book.
He threw his bag back to its place and gave me the book. It was a David Walliams' book. "You read them don't you?"
Zaiden kept looking around, not making eye contact with me, thankfully. I nodded and smiled, "thank you."
He finally made eye contact with me and sniffed, shoving his hands into his shorts pockets, "yeah, well, it was Zach's idea. He just couldn't it in his bag."
Oh.
Not leaving any room for an awkward silence, Zaiden leapt over the bleaches and back to where they were running. I looked down at the book, "Billionaire Boy". I smiled and slouched back against the bleachers railings.
Mid-reading, I heard someone trying to get my attention. I looked up from my book to see a girl, a few years older, clicking her fingers at me from the bottom of the bleachers. She was a few feet away from her group of friends who were all listening in and watching me.
I gave her an 'I'm listening' look and she gave me a smile, which looked like it pained her to do.
"Hey, no offense or anything," she's going to offend me.
"But what were you doing with the Verlice brothers this morning? Like are you a cousin or something, because we haven't heard of you or anything," she rolled her tongue, laughing, at the end of her sentence and turned towards her friends. They laughed with her.
I furrowed my eyebrows, people really find anything funny nowadays.
"Sister," I informed her, hoping to get out of this conversation as soon as possible.
Her face morphed into one of shock and her friends stopped laughing behind her. A boy with red hair spoke up, "they don't have a sister."
Who am I then, genius?
"I'm pretty sure they do."
"Well, we haven't heard of you," another girl spoke up. Why does God put the most socially awkward people in the most socially awkward situations?
I just shrugged and lifted my book up again. Please go away.
This seemed to do the trick because they all huffed and sat back down. When I knew they'd stopped looking, I steadied out my breathing. Why can't I speak to people normally?
I felt the bleachers shake a little and looked up, Zach was skipping over the seats to the top. He was really sweaty and out of breath, gripping his water bottle in a deathly hold whilst drinking.
He got to the top and dropped down on my left side; he puffed out a heavy breath and leaned his head on my shoulder, drinking more water.
I scrunched my nose at his sweaty hair and tried to move away, "get off, you smell and your hair's sweaty." Zach laughed and ruffled his hair in my face even more. As I tried to shuffle him away with my shoulder, he looked at the book, "whatcha reading?"
"The one you got out." Zach stopped his movements and his head stilled on my shoulder. "I didn't get one out."
"But Zaiden said-"
A sharp whistle rang out and Zach sat up quickly. "Crap," he sat up and made his way back. I giggled when he almost tripped two steps to the bottom. I watched as his coach sent him over to the group that was doing press-ups.
Then I looked down to the group from before, who all looked disgusted by me and some glared. I shifted uncomfortably. They made me feel self-conscious, what did I do? This was going to be a while.
---
"You like David Walliams?"
I jumped at the voice, lowering the book to see a boy around Zach and Zaiden's age. He had dirty blonde hair and brown eyes and apart from them, his features were barely distinguishable with the setting sun.
I had no clue who he was so I just awkwardly nodded, shuffling away a little. He was a few feet away, but it wouldn't hurt to have a few more centimetres.
He moved a little closer too though, "what's your favourite?"
I really didn't want to be rude and he clearly went to this school judging by the uniform, so where was the harm in answering him? "Probably Demon Dentist."
He nodded, "ah, that's a good one." I nodded with him, gave him an awkward smile and returned to reading. He didn't seem bad.
"I'm Sid by the way. Sid Donover."
I froze on the line I was reading. Oh.
I looked at him, trying to retain from saying that I knew him. Obsessed with your family, especially Zaiden.
Penny's words echoed in my head. Obsessed with your family.
I cleared my throat, "I'm Brynn."
"Yes. I know." I gulped.
"Another Verlice. That's crazy," he chuckled a little and I let out a fake one of my own, trying to think of ways to get out of this. "What's it like with seven older brothers?" I shrugged, "keeps me on my toes."
He chuckled again, but he looked like he didn't find it funny at all, "I can imagine."
Please be the end of this conversation.
"Who's you favourite?"
"I don't have-"
"Probably Zaiden, right?" My stomach dropped. He better keep my brother's name out of his mouth if what Penny said was true.
He leaned his head back on the back of the bleachers and looked deep in thought, "yeah, he's awesome." I didn't say anything about-
"We should speak more. You'll probably be seeing a lot of me with Zai anyway." Zai?
"Wanna exchange numbers? Just in case of emergencies."
No, that'd be weird.
I opened my mouth to try and formulate an answer and looked at the field as I did so. They were finishing up.
I stood quickly and hauled my backpack up, shoving the book inside and swinging it over my shoulder. "Sorry, I have to go I hear someone calling me," I rambled, making my way down.
Sid stood, looking weirded out, "I didn't hear anyone." I was now on the ground and I slowed down a little, picking at my nails, "oh, strange, I definitely heard someone."
"Brynn!" I never thought I'd be so happy to hear Silas call my name.
I turned around to Sid, whose fists were clenched and eyes glaring at the figure, that was Silas, making their way over. "See," I mumbled, nervously.
Not even a second later, I flinched at a hand on my shoulder. The hand pulled me back and the body that the hand belonged to stood in front of me.
"Sid," Silas spat. I couldn't see Sid, but if he was as sane as any person, he would have been nervous in Silas' presence.
"Silas," Sid spat back, oddly matching Silas pissed off energy.
"Would you be as kind as to fuck off?" I had to hold back a laugh at Silas request, although we all knew that it wasn't a request.
"No need to be hotheaded, Verlice. I was just chatting to your little sister, wasn't I, Brynn dear?" he smiled far too wide and tried to look behind Silas at me.
Somebody else placed their hand on my shoulder, tugging me back even further. "Sid, you heard my brother." Zaiden.
Sid snapped out of his teasing and completely listened to Zaiden. He gripped the back of the bleachers and swung his legs over, jumping off. He didn't fall that far, the bleachers weren't tall enough to injure yourself if you jumped off, but when he landed, he did shoot a glare at all of us.
Silas and Zaiden scoffed angrily and went up the bleachers to retrieve their backpacks as well as Zach's. Speaking of Zach, where was he?
I looked over to the field to see him speaking with the coach. There he is.
I wanted to wait for him, however Zaiden and Silas apparently didn't because they stormed past me. "We're going back to the car, Zach will catch up," Silas informed, tugging his hoodie off to reveal his sweaty grey tee and tying it around his waist.
I bit my lip and looked to where they were walking off and at Zach, who was still talking with the coach. I was highly conflicted. I didn't want Zaiden and Silas to yell at me for not following, but I didn't want to leave Zach.
My mind was made up for me when I saw Zaiden turn his head slightly to make sure I was following. I could practically already hear him yell at me to follow so I stumbled to catch up with them. Then I did something I knew I'd regret.
"Who's Sid?"
Silas and Zaiden slowed down a little and looked at each other; I slowed down to match their speed, we had a good twelve feet between us and I didn't want to invade that. Zaiden turned his head back to look at me. "No one you should concern yourself with," he said.
I wasn't going to let this go though. Sid really gave me bad vibes. Besides, I had a good distance between me and my brothers, if I needed to run, I'd have plenty of time.
"But he talked to me, does that not concern me in a way?" I shut up and stilled when Zaiden and Silas stopped walking and turned around. "Brynn, watch who you're talking to."
"I was only asking a question which I think I had the right to know the answers to."
"Brynn, drop it."
"But-"
"No, you listen to me!" Silas yelled taking a few steps closer, to which I responded with flinching a few steps back. He looked hurt and tried to compose himself.
"Drop. It."
They both continued to walk whilst I took a few moments to keep some tears back. Baby.
Taking a shaky breath, I continued behind them. We got to the car park, where they were stood at the hood of Silas' car. I walked past them and got in the back, avoiding any and all eye contact.
A few minutes later, Zach came around the corner. He conversed with Zaiden and Silas before getting in the back with me.
No one said anything on the way back and that just made it awkward. Maybe it was just me but I felt it would just be easier to hold eye contact with Zayne than spend any longer in this unbearable tension.
Eventually, Silas turned the radio up. Now the car was filled with sound which was far better than before.
When we arrived home, I was out first. Nobody stopped me as I made my way to the garage door which was already opened.
I got into the foyer and was met with Callan. He looked like he'd just finished work in his crisp dark blue suit and hard face.
I went to walk past him since I assumed he was waiting for the others, however he held both of my shoulders and led me away from the stairs.
"Woah you're not going anywhere just yet, sorellina," he smiled down at me, walking us to the small medic where Brayden was gathering supplies. He heard us coming in and grinned at me as I internally sighed in relaxation. These guys could really make my better by just smiling at me.
"Hey, hun. Come sit on here," he patted the side table, "let's see if we can get these bandages off you." That brightened me up.
I made my way over and sat, maybe a bit too eagerly because Callan and Brayden chuckled at me. I blushed, a bit embarrassed.
"So how was your first day?" Brayden asked as I took my blazer off. "It was okay." I responded. Brayden got to work on checking the injuries and then scoffed. "Just okay?"
Callan piped up from where he was standing at the end of the side table, not too far away from me,"come one, give us more than that. You were dying to get out the house and to school for days and now that you finally have, you give us 'it was okay'?"
He had hung up his blazer on the back of the door and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows, leaning on the table whilst also giving me a "suspicious" look; his eyebrows furrowed playfully and eyes narrowed.
I gave in. "Okay it was really cool!" I got excited. "Some people were nice and I even made two friends." Callan raised his eyebrows and opened his mouth in mock shock. He seemed to be really interested in what I was saying, as did Brayden. This was nice.
"Oh yeah? Who?" Brayden asked, unwrapping the final bandage.
"These two girls, Penny and Aubrey. They were so sweet and even gave me their numbers! Oh and some teachers were really nice, well except Ms. Gren, she hates kids," I scrunched my face up in distaste. Ms. Gren was not nice.
Brayden and Callan even matched the distaste on my face. "Ms, Gren?" Callan asked again then looked at Brayden, "that old cow's still there?"
My eyes widened at him and Brayden scoffed, rolling his eyes, "god I hated her."
"How come?" I asked.
"Well let's just say that Zayne didn't leave a good impression on her and she has hated us ever since," Callan confessed.
My eyes widened further, "Zayne? What did he do?"
Callan looked like he was trying to hold back a mix of a smirk and a smile. "That's a story for him to tell you one day." As if Zayne would tell me.
I wondered if I should tell them about Sid. No, I don't want the same reaction as Silas or Zaiden.
I decided to change the subject, "how was your days?"
"Boring," they responded at the same time.
"Zayne loves to give me the hardest paperwork," Callan faked exhaustion. I chuckled at him just as Brayden answered, "I finished work at twelve so I went to Ezra's studio to spar for a bit."
"You spar?" I asked.
He gave me an incredulous look, "how do you think I've got these?" He flexed his muscles which were more noticeable in his grandpa sweater. I shrugged, "dunno. Presumed you'd got them from really doctoring."
He raised an eyebrow, "really doctoring?" I nodded and I could hear Callan chuckle.
"Hm," he finished examining. "Well, you are free from the bandages." I mentally cheered, so thankful I didn't have to wear them any longer.
I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to ask about sitting in the library at lunch with Penny and Aubrey. Who better to ask than Callan and Brayden?
"I was um wondering if I could sit in the library at lunch? With Penny and Aubrey."
Callan and Brayden both looked at each other, unsure. After a few more seconds later and they seemed to come to some sort of conclusion with their eyes. Callan smiled warmly at me, "I'll ask Zayne."
I smiled, trying not to get too excited, "thank you." He smiled back, "no problem."
Brayden lifted me off the side table and began cleaning his supplies. "Now go make yourself scarce," he teased. And I did exactly that, picking my blazer and backpack up and going to my room.
I hung my blazer on my door and dumped the bag on my bed. I thought about going to see Zach but decided against it. He was probably doing homework and I didn't want to disturb him.
I could go to the game room, but was I allowed in? I didn't even know how to work most of the electronics in there anyway.
Living room? I haven't actually been in there for its intended purpose. Maybe not.
Cinema room again? Sounds good.
So that's where I was right now. Watching a show I found on Netflix. H2O: Just Add Water.
I was quite content, feeling for the first time at home.
A few minutes into the first episode, Ezra walked in. He was dressed in his black gym shorts, black t-shirt, black socks and his signature bandages on his hands. His hair was also really scruffy which meant he was just back from work.
I grabbed the remote, ready to turn it off, just in case he wanted to watch something and wanted me out. I could see him from the corner of my eye, he just stood there for a few seconds, looking rather uncomfortable.
He cleared his throat, "so."
I looked at him, shocked he was willingly speaking to me.
"How was school?"
I answered far too eagerly, "good." I slowed down a bit. I didn't want to show my full excitement over him finally speaking to me normally. "It was good."
"Good."
I went back to watching my show as he looked around the room, still looking like he didn't want to be here. Then, he zoned in on the screen and I swore he smirked.
"You know, you wonder why we treat you like a baby and then you watch baby shows."
I was highly offended. "This isn't a baby show," I murmured, insulted.
"It's about mermaids," he gave me a harsh look, which I don't think he intended to be so harsh.
He looked back at the screen, probably to make another comment about it but stopped and furrowed his eyebrows.
"Hold on, I thought they couldn't touch water. Why's she in a pool?" he pointed at Emma on the screen.
"She hasn't turned yet," I said.
He sat down one seat over from me, not taking his eyes off the screen. Unexpectedly, he held his left arm out, hand wide. "Remote."
I inwardly sighed and handed it over. I really wanted to watch this.
I waited for the screen to read that he was leaving the show, but that never happened. He turned the volume up.
I looked over at him, shocked. He didn't do or say anything, just threw the remote next to him and leaned back in his chair.
A few more minutes later of us watching it and Zach came in and sat on my left. He looked at what we were watching and gave me a look of approval, "excellent choice of show, love."
Then again, a few seconds after Zach came in, so did Zaiden. He stood and looked at what were watching, crossing his arms. He opened his mouth to say something, but got kicked by Ezra. "Get out the way," he muttered.
Zaiden scoffed, taking the seat in-between Ezra and me. After a few seconds of watching, he asked, "why are they in water if they're mermaids? That makes no sense."
I was about to bravely answer him, but someone beat me to it.
"They've not turned yet dumb arse," Ezra muttered. Zaiden didn't say anything, just nodded.
Another few minutes and Silas entered. He took a seat behind me and didn't say anything.
This continued with Callan and Brayden too. They walked in talking, only to be shushed by the rest of my brothers. Raising their hands in mock offence and surrender, they both took seats next to Silas, behind me.
I couldn't even remember what episode were on at this point. I was quite tense at first being in a room with nearly all of my brothers, but I soon loosened up. It made it easier that they kept making funny commentary. Like right now.
"Honestly, Rikki deserves so much better than Zane. The guys a total dick," Callan said.
"Only 'cause his dad's an ass," Silas responded.
"Yeah, but Rikki is far too good for him. He's just gonna use her," Brayden chipped in.
"Not to mention the whole mermaid, there's no way Zane has the balls to handle that," Zaiden chipped in too.
"What?"
We all jumped at the voice in the door way. Zayne was there, in his usual suit and hard face. He had his arms crossed and eyebrow raised, looking from the screen to us.
Everybody was frozen, my brothers appeared guilty. Zayne looked like he was trying to keep his hard expression.
"How would you all feel about take-out tonight?" he asked us to which they nodded their heads at.
"Words," I teased.
I don't even know where it came from, but none of them were talking so I'd assumed (hoped) they wouldn't tell me off.
I was right, they just looked at me utterly shocked. I was shocked in myself. I don't think I've ever spoken so confidently in front of all my brothers like this.
"Very well," Zayne nodded his head once. "I'll leave you all to..." he trailed off, looking at the screen.
Ezra quickly stood. "Right, well I'm off to the erm gym," he said, voice in its usual stern tone.
Silas stood too, "I'll come with you."
Zaiden then left behind them, "I'll be doing homework." Zach, Callan and Brayden followed them after, claiming they had more work.
With them gone, I had a sudden emptiness in my chest. I kind of miss them.
Dismissing the feeling, I switched the screen off and left, going up to my room.
I got my phone out of my blazer and saw I had seven messages.
From: the girls
p: hey brynn.
p: it's us.
p: penny and aubrey if that wasn't clear.
a: i think she knows dumbass
p: well clarification never killed anyone.
a: i hope i get killed if you keep talking like this
p: me too.
I laughed at the messages and added each of their numbers to my contacts.
---
We texted until it was time for dinner. I messaged a quick 'text you later' and made my way downstairs.
The chippy arrived and we all sat down to eat. It was silent, but not an awkward one like usual. It was a nice one.
It was interrupted when Mika came bursting through the door, "Zayne." He sent a look towards him and all my brothers tensed.
Then Mika noticed me, "oh hey, honey." He smiled warmly at me before looking back at Zayne, seriously.
I saw this as my window. I was full but hadn't eaten much and now was my chance to make myself scarce. I picked my plate up and walked to the kitchen.
"Brynn," Brayden warned, I sped up, "I'll go, don't worry."
I made it to the kitchen and managed to do the dishes. No one stopped me so I assumed they were really busy.
I wonder what about.
Shaking off the question, I got ready for bed. I exchanged my school clothes for my comfy 'Le Weekend' hoodie and baggy grey pyjama pants. I packed my school bag for tomorrow and laid my uniform out ready.
Brushing my teeth and turning the fairy lights on and main light off, I got into bed. It took me a while to actually fall asleep, I kept thinking about what was going on downstairs.
I did manage to fall asleep after some overthinking. My last thought being that I was happy.
Today has started off really good and I hoped the rest of the week.
And it was.
Well. Friday night was a different story.
A much different story.
---
Things are going so well right now.
It :) would :) be :) a :) shame :) if :) someone :) ruined :) that :)
Didn't want my little overthinkers to think I wasn't coming back.
I'll always come back. I'm like an STD.
You don't want me, but you still somehow end up with me.
<3