When 6 PM rolled around and a couple of minutes had passed, I sat eagerly on the couch near the front door. Primarily because I wanted to be the one to welcome JJ. Also, because I hadn't told her about the boys yet, and I didn't want her opening the door to Dominic or Damon looking all intimidating.
When the doorbell rang through the house, I flew to the door and ripped it open.
Immediately I was embarrassed. Instead of the girl around my height and around my age that I had been expecting, a girl who looked like a model stood at the door and smiled warmly at me. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders smoothly and her white teeth contrasted beautifully with her dark skin.
"Oh." I said in surprise, pulling back inside and laughing a little.
She let out a small laugh that sounded like a bell and said "Hello! I'm Christine. I'm looking for Dominic?"
I cleared my throat to try to think of something clever or at least sensible to say but before I could speak, I was cut off.
"Hey Christine!" Dominic said as he leaned over me and gave her a quick peck on the lips. I ducked down and looked up at him in disgust. He kissed girls? He was... Dominic! I couldn't exactly explain why, but that was just gross. He ruffled my hair playfully and smiled wryly at the girl beside us.
"This is my little sister, sort of." He explained as I got out of the way and she walked inside.
"It's nice to meet you!" She said in an easygoing way that I didn't expect. Was it possible to look like a model but be humble too?
"What's your name?" she asked, as Dominic grabbed her hand and tried to pull her away. She kept her feet firmly planted and gave me all of her attention. Ignoring Dominic and talking to me? I liked her already.
"Maya." I said, finally finding my voice.
"Beautiful name." she said. "Nice to meet you!" She called out as Dominic dragged her away and up towards his room with a wave.
"Call us when it's time for dinner, kid!" he said without a look in my direction. Wow. The second he has a pretty girl with him he forgets that we're friends. I'd have to find a way to remind him later. The only problem with not growing up with this crazy family was that I had no dirt or embarrassing secrets on any of them! Maybe Caleb would share some with me later...
The doorbell ringing once more broke me from my mischievous planning, and I took a giant step over to it, swinging it open and grinning once I saw my friend.
"JJ!" I yelled, giving her a hug. She squeezed me back immediately, yelling "Maya!"
I know we had just met, but there was something about her that made me think we would be friends for a while.
"Welcome to... the place where I'm living!" I said, trying to evade lying to her directly. I didn't want to share with her the truth about my past, but I didn't want to lie to her like I had to do at school with my name, either. It just made my stomach hurt.
"You could just call it "your house", you know?" she asked me sarcastically, rolling her eyes and then scoping out the front room excitedly.
"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU LIVE IN A MANSION!" she said, as she dragged me from room to room with her to check out all the corners. Finally! Someone who can see that this place is a castle!
"Yep. This is the castle and I'm the princess." I said faux-arrogantly, motioning to myself as if I were highly impressive. She laughed as we finished examining the downstairs.
"Can we go to your room, too?" she inquired curiously. I giggled at the full inspection she seemed to be performing.
"'Course." I said easily, as if I had done this all before. In truth, I didn't remember inviting friends over to my house as a kid. I wanted it to be my safe place, and that meant keeping everybody out, even if my uncle would've allowed anyone over. As I looked into JJ's shining eyes, I decided to let her in.
"Come on!" I said, grabbing her hand and shooting up the stairs. When we reached my door, the door down the hall opened and Damon walked out.
He gave me a head nod that didn't change his expression and kept walking. JJ froze in place as he walked by, but I pulled her into my room easily enough.
As I shut the door behind me, she turned to face me with an expression of pure shock. "Was that Damon Anders?" she asked.
"Yep." I said, laughing at her tone. It was as if the Queen of England had walked by.
"And you're Maya Anders!" she said, as awareness brightened her expression.
"That's what they tell me." I replied with an unsure smile. What was she getting at?
"OH MY GOD SO YOUR BROTHERS ARE THE ANDERS THAT EVERYBODY KNOWS? CALEB? BROOKLYN? ALL OF THEM?" she screamed.
I slapped my hand over her mouth and said, "They can hear you; you know!"
Her eyes widened and I pulled my hand away, before walking over to my bed and leaping onto it. She followed suit and we looked up at the white ceiling together.
"Yes, they live here too." I replied with a chuckle after she turned to look at me.
"Wow! I didn't know that!" she said. I wanted to tell her that I could tell from the way she screamed in my ear, but I kept that to myself.
"What's it like to live with a bunch of older brothers?" she asked, curiously.
I thought about it for a moment. Even if they weren't my real brothers, I did sort of know what living with them was like at this point.
"It can be fun, when they're in a good mood." I replied charitably.
"And when they're not?" she asked, wiggling her eyebrows at me.
"I want to punch them all in the face repeatedly." I said with a laugh that she echoed.
She told me that she only had younger siblings and showed me a picture on her phone. Although the two little twins looked like absolute angels, she assured me that they were closer to devils with the way they misbehaved and threw tantrums.
"They're young though," I suggested. "Maybe they'll grow out of it!"
"I hope so." She said, rolling her eyes at the memory of some of their antics presumably.
"What's the best part about having younger siblings?" I asked, mirroring her earlier question.
She closed her eyes as she considered that and then jumped up on her elbows to talk to me directly.
"I think I just love that I get to see all of their life. I knew them the day they were born, and I'll know them forever." She said softly. "I just want to make sure they're safe and do well."
I felt my heart melt while simultaneously my body stiffened. I didn't get that safety. I didn't have anyone there for everything besides him. My expression must have been interesting because she pulled me back to the present with a snap.
"Maya? I lost you for a second." She said with a little concern in her eyes.
I turned back to face her with a generic grin, although I was sure the smile wasn't as genuine as I wanted it to look.
"Sorry about that. I was just thinking about your answer. I love it."
The concern washed from her face and she opened her mouth to reply but a noise came from downstairs, silencing us.
"MAYA! Dinner!" a deep voice called up the stairs.
"Ready for some BBQ?" I asked, standing up and getting a slight head rush.
"Frick yeah." She said, smiling and racing me downstairs. When we got to the kitchen, I looked around in surprise. It was empty and I couldn't smell the dinner they claimed had been ready.
JJ looked at me and pretended to be stern.
"You lied to me about being related to the Anders boys, didn't you? You hired Damon to walk by to make you look cool, and you don't even have a fake dinner prepared?" she asked, shaking her head.
I looked at her with disdain and tried not to smile.
I heard the sliding glass door open and then Brooklyn walked into the kitchen, pulling ketchup and mustard from the fridge.
"What're you doing inside, loser?" he asked me. "Party's outside!"
"That makes more sense." I agreed. I turned to the suddenly shy JJ.
"JJ, this is Brooks. Brooks, JJ." I said, introducing them. Brooklyn held out his hand and they shook, before he led us out to the back. And I had to admit that he was right. The party was outside.