On Monday morning, I was slightly less miserable about having to skip practice for tutoring because I finally had my car back. Alex had his too, so we drove separately, with Jay joining him in his car and Violet riding with me. She'd been in another fight with our dad this morning so spent the entire journey with a stony expression.
"What's going on with you?" I finally asked her as we pulled up in the car park outside school. When we were younger, Vi, Alex and I were always close and would play together all the time as kids. Even when Chris and Em came along, she remained closer to the two of us than she ever was with them. When we got a bit older, we started to bicker and tease each other a lot but we'd still always felt close, but recently she'd seemed more and more distant and spent all her time arguing with everyone around her.
Her scowl deepened at my question and she twisted away from me to slide her bag onto her shoulder. "What do you mean?"
I rolled my eyes. "You know exactly what I mean. Why've you been so moody and argumentative."
I realised my mistake the moment the words left my mouth. Never tell a woman she's in a mood. That was what my dad had always told us. I could see the anger simmering in Violeta's eyes as she whipped back around to face me. "Fuck off Matt," she spat before throwing open the car door so violently I was worried it would snap off the hinges. A second later, it slammed hard enough to shake the whole vehicle and Vi stormed across the car park without even glancing back.
I huffed out a sigh and jumped out of the car. Across the car park, I saw Alex tip his head back and laugh while he and Jay approached me, their gazes darting between me and where Vi was heading towards the main entrance. "She looks happy," Alex commented, brows raised.
"My fault, I asked what was wrong," I told him with an eye roll.
Jay chuckled. "Women." I offered him a grin.
"What does she do every morning before class starts?"
Alex shrugged. "Gossip about other girls with her friends? How should I know?"
That was enough of an answer to have me twisting and following in the same direction she had gone. "Where are you going? Don't you have tutoring?" my brother called after me.
"Yep."
I heard him mutter something before two sets of footsteps fell into step with my own and the three of us quickly caught up to Violet in the main hallway of the school. I watched her walk straight past her locker and make a right towards where the science labs were. "Can't imagine she's developed a sudden interest for chemistry," Jay muttered beside me, voicing my own thoughts. My sister was a lot like me in that regard and wouldn't be caught dead inside the chem labs when she didn't have to be there.
I inched forwards, keeping quiet so she didn't hear us following her, and then turned the corner to peek into the room she'd entered. The only other person in there was a guy I didn't recognise and I felt my stomach tighten.
He was a tall, big guy, with gelled hair and a stupid smirk on his face as he eyed my sister. He wasn't anyone significant enough for me to recognise him, but he wore a leather jacket and a pair of motorcycle boots and had an air of superiority around him that rubbed me up the wrong way. "Who the fuck is that," I muttered.
Before either of the guys could confirm whether they recognised him or not, Vi approached him, raised onto her tip-toes, wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her lips to his. I saw red, and, before I even knew I was moving, I was closing my hand around her arm and dragging her back from him.
"Ow! What the hell," she screeched, twisting to look up at me and then ripping her arm free.
Meanwhile, her companion stepped forward. "Hey! Get your fucking hands off her!"
He raised his fist, levelling it with my face, his expression thunderous as he looked between me and my sister like she belonged to him. As he swung, I easily captured his fist in my palm and forced it backwards, causing his arm to bend at an angle. The only way he could lessen the pain and stop me from snapping a bone was for him to step back. In response, I only put more pressure onto his fist until he stumbled back and smacked his head against the wall.
"You wanna try that again?" I asked, the threat of what would happen if he did crystal clear in my voice.
"Matt, stop!" my sister called from behind me. I ignored her.
I watched the guy in front of me swallow before he started to wriggle in an attempt to get free. "Get your hands off me before I kill you," he spat, lacking any intensity or force in his tone. Instead, the statement came out flat, with an arrogance that told me he had no idea who he was talking to. It only pissed me off more.
I raised my fist to pummel his smug face until it was just mush under my hand. At the last second, Vi suddenly stepped in front of me and Jay pulled back my arm before the momentum caused me to knock my little sister unconscious. "Stop it!" she yelled, shoving me backwards.
I didn't move an inch. Instead, I redirected my anger at her. "Who the hell is this guy?"
She matched my glare. "My boyfriend," she spat, raising an eyebrow before glancing behind me to where Jay and Alex stood. Then, she redirected her gaze back to me. "Go away Matt."
"You heard the lady," the prick behind her suddenly interjected, snaking an arm around her waist and playing the gentlemen. I was itching to take that punch but Vi must've seen me coming before she shuffled to the left to position herself in between us again. "Go. Now."
My jaw ached from clenching it so hard and I was certain my teeth had ground into dust in my mouth as I glared back at the guy who had the audacity to smirk back at me. Before I could decide what exactly I was going to do with him, Alex stepped in. "Vi, a word?"
She lifted her chin. "No."
She met my gaze for a split second before turning and kissing the dead man behind her. I watched in annoyance as he snaked his hands down to rest on my little sister's ass and, just when I was about to say fuck it and beat him to death, they pulled away and she turned and led him out the room.
I stood there, stunned for a moment, before I started to move. "Don't," Alex grumbled, reaching out to stop me. I glared back at him, opening my mouth to argue but he shook his head. "She's doing it on purpose. The more you react, the worse it'll get."
"I'm not about to just go about my day and let that prick grope my little sister!" I snapped back at him. I recognised that look on his face when she kissed him. He thought he was about to get lucky and I sure as fuck wasn't about to let that happen.
"You have tutoring and we have practice, Matt. We can deal with this later." I ran a hand through my hair and blew out a breath, desperate to try and release any of the anger that was burning inside of me. "See you later," Alex said with a pointed look before the two of them left the room.
I spent a few more minutes pacing back and forth across the chemistry lab before throwing the door open and making my way to the library. I felt like an active volcano, ready to erupt at any moment, but I couldn't spend another minute looking at the spot where some motorcycle riding deadbeat stuck his tongue down my sister's throat.
When I entered the library, I felt like an elephant trampling through an antique shop. I slammed open the door and stomped across the carpeted floors, managing to disturb the silence without saying a word. The woman behind the desk glanced up at me in surprise but kept her mouth shut when she saw the expression on my face. I ignored her completely and entered the study room.
"Oh. There you are. I wasn't sure if you..." Rose glanced up at me, her eyes wide. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," I stated, trying to sound neutral but there was a brashness to my tone. "Sorry I'm late," I tried again, softening the slightest bit but I'm sure I still saw her flinch.
She swallowed, her throat bobbing, before she nodded. "That's okay." She slid a piece of paper across the table towards me before quickly snatching her hand away as if I would bite it off. Seeing her so on edge only made me more irritated and I dropped into the chair across from her and threw my bag onto the floor.
We stayed silent for a while and I tried to make my way through the worksheet she'd given me, translating some of the Italian words we'd gone through last week. I had been practicing them over the weekend but now all I could think about was Vi. I shoved the paper away, catching her flinch yet again in my peripheral vision, before I ran a hand through my hair. "Sorry," I muttered, meeting her wide eyes.
"I-is everything okay?"
I frowned at the waver in her voice and forced myself to relax so she wouldn't be so on edge. "Yeah, fine," I grumbled, not particularly convincing. I shook my head. "It's just my sister. She had some arrogant little dick's tongue down her throat this morning."
The sound that left Rose's mouth was something between a choked cough and a laugh. Her lips quirked as she met my gaze. "And that's made you this angry? A kiss?"
I raised an eyebrow. "For an older brother? Yeah."
This time, she laughed and gave a little shake of her head. "Right. I'm guessing you're protective?"
I lifted a shoulder. "She's my little sister and ten seconds with the guy was enough to tell me that he was a stupid little boy who is only after one thing and will get it from any girl willing to give it." I grit my teeth at the thought of my sister being one of those girls.
She laughed again and for some reason, I found the sound to be soothing and felt some of the tension bleed out of me. "You've just described every man," she stated with a small smile.
I met her gaze. "Not all."
She held my stare for a moment before huffing a little laugh and turning away. "If you're that worried about your sister, why don't you talk to her?"
"She won't listen to me," I explained. "If I tell her to stay away, she'd probably sleep with him just to spite me. I'm debating telling my dad, I'm sure he'll scare the guy off."
A frown crossed her face. "You can't do that. She might really like the guy and she'll feel like you're all against her. I think you should leave her be," she said, "she's not a kid."
"She's my little sister," I stated again. To me, that was reason enough to get involved but Rose only rolled her eyes and pushed the worksheet back towards me.