HIM.
"Mom, do I look okay?" I look at her, watching as she twirls around in the kitchen, stepping away from the stove, also known as her happy place. Her brown hair whips over her shoulders, and her dark eyes trail me, scanning for any flaws.
"Come here, child," she waves me over, going back to slowly, carefully mixing the dark, chocolate batter in a big pot. Her little fingers pull at the collar of my shirt, lifting it up before folding it back down nicely, and stepping back. She tilts her head to the side before coming back and unbuttoning the first two buttons of my shirt. She sniffs me. "Why do you only smell like soap?"
"I took a shower?" I furrow my eyebrows, my tone sarcastic. "What am I supposed to smell like?"
"The cologne I bought you, smartass."
"It's back at school."
"Of course it is," she rolls her eyes before dragging me up the stairs toward her bedroom. "Caprice!"
"Yes, honey!" He yells back almost instantly, as if he was waiting for her to call him.
"Do you—"
"—Yes Karlo, come here," he cut her off, already knowing what she was going to ask him. Their connection with each other is unreal at times. We enter the room and he hands her a bottle of cologne before getting a good look at me. "Well damn, why are you dressed up? The wedding's over."
My mom just couldn't hold in her excitement. "Oh he's going on a date when Raine!" She claps excitedly before turning me to face her and sprays me multiple times with the minty/spicy smelling scent. "Aren't you super excited, Calix?" She calls me by my middle name, which makes me give her a bored look.
"Super."
"Oh so she's your girlfriend now or something?" My dad takes the cologne back from mom, and disappears into their master bathroom for a second. My mother looks at me expectantly, her brown eyes wide and bright.
"No."
"Pussy," he smacks his teeth, "What?" He looks at my mom who was giving him a dirty look. "He finally brings a girl home and he's still scared to commit to her?"
"Can you hear his side of the story first?" I glance at her to meet her eye, but she was busy being upset with my dad. What did Raine tell her? Or is this just some sort of mother's intuition? Dad sits on his bed, resting his weight on his arms as he leans backward.
"Go on."
"She doesn't want a title," I say out loud, feeling like an idiot. Of course I shouldn't feel bad because Raine's made it clear that she likes me, but it I can't lie and say I didn't feel a nasty sting of rejection. My mom places her hand on my back, rubbing it softly. "She doesn't trust me right now."
"Carson..." her tone was serious. "Are you fucking around with her?"
"Karlo," Dad warns her. She rolls her eyes, clearly being a brat on purpose. She's always stoking the fire. "Carson, I know how you are, boy," he sighs, rubbing a hand down his face before waving me over. I walk to the edge of the bed and stand in front of him. "Let me tell you how to get women to sway," he smiles at my mom, who flicks him off. His voice turns lethal when he demands lowly, "Leave."
She all but ran away.
The only thought running in my head was: I'm so fucking glad I won't be here while they fuck it out. "Hey, Ryker!"
Ryker runs into the room, still putting on his jeans. His bow tie was still loosely wrapped around his neck, the bow dangling across his bare chest. One thing you don't make my dad do is wait. If he calls, your ass better be there asap. "What's up?"
"You can hear this too," he chuckles at Ryker's disheveled appearance. "What is wrong with you?"
"Well my dick decided to play peek-a-boo and you called me when I was putting him in his place," he rushes out, buttoning his jeans up before yanking up the zipper. I snatch the bow tie from his neck before throwing it at his chest. He catches it quickly, not giving it a chance to hit the floor. "Don't you look cute," he teases, pulling on the collar of my shirt.
I push his hand away a little aggressively, "Don't touch me." He puts his arm over my shoulder and pulls me close for a side hug, kind of choking me out with his biceps. I fought him for a few seconds before surrendering. He ruffles my hair.
"Your relationship..." my dad trails off, looking at us with a playful grimace on his face before he huffed out a laugh. "Listen," we give him our undivided attention because the tone of his voice switched into parent mode. He was going to tell us something to change our lives. "You've got to get your shit together..."
He went on by firstly explaining that we were in fact whores. I wouldn't call us whores, I would just merely describe us as guys that love to dive into different escapades that exploit our sexual prowess. When I voiced my thoughts, he was quick to tell us that Ryker has a way of downplaying his sex life because he's quiet and gentle with his approach, unlike I who does not give a fuck and will ask a girl to blow me within five minutes of knowing her.
These differences in us doesn't really change the fact that we bottom out to being 'whores'.
I guess I can't really fight it, then.
After calling us out on our behavior, he got specific in the information he was giving us. "Raine," his dark, steel eyes met my own matching set to show me his seriousness. "She doesn't trust you because you've never had a serious relationship." It was here that I was feeling a bit of discomfort emotionally because I never actually told the truth to my dad about the one relationship I had very much been serious about.
Well, my one-sided relationship. I rub the back of my neck, feeling the scar that has healed fairly well, only a faint white line that no one would be able to see unless they truly looked. Ryker gives me a brotherly shake, to let me know he understood exactly how I was feeling. He, my brother, and my sisters are the only ones that know what happened to me a few years ago.
That stupid, crazy bitch.
"Has she talked to your sisters?" He had asked me after. Of course she's talked to my damn loose-lipped sisters. He told me they told her what I already had an inkling feeling they would say. Make him jealous. Yes, the grand method of poking the bear. Tick me off. Make me burn with the desire to possess her completely, claim her as mine and show her how committed I am to her.
"Don't get possessive," my father made that very clear after giving me the low down. "You get possessive, she'll let you know exactly where your place is. You're not in a relationship, she's not required to commit right now. She will cuss you out and walk away. For good." I almost chuckled. No way in hell Raine would curse me out. The only time her mouth is filthy is when I'm fucking her.
Finishing his talk with me, he began to give Ryker pointers for his problem. "You want my daughter," he stated bluntly, watching as Ryker swallowed nervously. Caught. I had pulled away from his suffocating embrace by this point, so he was all by himself with channeling his nervousness. I've only seen Ryker nervous three times in my life:
1. When we were fourteen and I brought him to my house for the first time. The boy took one look at my brown-eyed, five-foot-seven, 16 year old sister and all gears churning in his little brain rusted over. I took him through the living room, where Korinne and Kennedy were watching a baseball game and I swear his dick rose right up. We always introduce ourselves as a family when someone new comes in, and when she told him her name, I think he drooled a bit, muttered out, "I-Ryker" and walked right back out of the house, turning beet red.
2. Last night when he could barely compliment her, and later told me (very animatedly, might I add) that it was difficult to focus on what he was doing when she kept accidentally brushing against him or whispering in his ear to tell him something. He made multiple attempts to hit on her, and some other things he was too afraid to say because I was definitely in a 'touch my sister and you're dead' mood tonight.
And the last time is right now, when he's confronting my dad about his feelings for my sister. I'm not really sure if there was a time that they really developed, it just sort of happened. I think it's more of a love at first situation, but he's too much of a tough guy to admit it to me. In certain situations—what he fails to realize—is that I'm more than willing to listen to how he feels about Kennedy because she's my damn sister. I don't want her shacking up with some no good cunt.
My respect for him will dramatically increase the day he tells me how he feels, but until then, I will continue to look at him like I'm looking at him now. "Don't look at me like that," his dark eyes pierce mine, a dark energy flowing from him. I arch a brow, not scared of him. I never will be scared of him. "Yes," he addresses my dad, "Badly."
His only words of advice for now were, "Let her come to you."
|||
"Come on, Caleb!" I bang on his door with the side of my fist before yelling, "Get your dick out of her and let's go!" I keep banging on the door, and a few seconds later it swings open abruptly. "Button your shirt," I hit his chest, ignoring the glare he's giving me, his jaw working since I've clearly ruined his night.
Peeking into his god-awful, messy room, I shake my head at the poor girl wrapped up in dark sheets, passed out on his bed. "What was taking you so long?" I ask him, walking down the steps behind him.
"I'm sorry that I have a girl to satisfy," he grumbles out, the steps creaking with each heavy footfall of his.
"I'm sorry you're so in love that you can't keep your penis to yourself." He whips around on the stairs to face me so quickly that he lost his balance and slid down a step.
"She's just a bro, shut your mouth," he snaps, then hops off the bottom two steps, pushing pass Ryker so he could get to the refrigerator. Ryker leans against the island, watching my brother with pity.
"Bros don't fuck," I gape, half-shocked half-annoyed about how he doesn't see the relationship he and her could have. "I sure as hell don't fuck Ryker every chance I get."
Ryker arches a brown at me, "Don't lie to your brother."
"You are so fucking sick," I laugh at my best friend, absolutely disgusted at the thought of us...in bed together.
"You're in denial. You know you want a piece of this." He winks at me.
"The point is, Caleb," I point at him, and he freezes mid sip of beer, his eyes wide. "You love her."
"Aren't we're leaving anytime soon?" He avoids the topic before tilting the beer up, chugging the rest of the bottle. He slams the bottle down onto the counter once he finishes and purses his lips. "Well?"
About a half hour later, I was drooling over a girl in mom jeans and a sweater, but to keep some sort of dignity, I didn't linger on her. "Took y'all long enough," Reed, Korinne's unofficial boyfriend extends his arm to fist bump me, dapping me up.
"Looking this good ain't easy." I adjust my shirt, laughing when he curses me under his breath. We walk over to a little shack by the entrance, mini golf clubs hung up on a far wall in the back, and a rack full of different colored golf balls on a counter.
The cashier looks at all of us. "Seven?"
"Yeah," Ryker leans against the counter, peering behind the man. "Y'all got some beer or something? It's gonna be a long night with these fucks."
"This is minigolf, not a country club, Ryk," Carter pops up next to him, standing in front of me, giving a nice view of her pear-shaped ass in those jeans. They might've been mom jeans but she sure as hell looked hot in them.
The man flashes a smile at her before shaking his head at Ryker. "The little lady's right. No alcohol. We do have root beer. Closest thing to booze we got."
"I'll take it," he grumbles. "And I'll pay for everyone."
"Raine," I look down at her, biting back a smirk when her body jumps at the sound of my voice.
She looks up at me, narrowing her eyes. "Carson."
"You look great."
Great? That's it, Speros?
She thanks me sweetly, nudging me with her hip. "You look great, too."
We all get our things needed for golfing, and we start heading out to find the first hole. "Guys let's be in teams!" Korinne jumps up excitedly, pointing her club into the air.
"Yeah guys versus girls!" Kennedy pitches.
"So much for a date, huh?" I chuckle with Carter, who gives me a knowing look.
"It's okay. Your sisters seem more fun anyway," she teases, flipping her hair over her shoulder before yelling out to Kennedy, "Yeah let's kick some ass!"
By the second to last hole, they had us beat. Carter hits a hole in one. She squeals in excitement, fist bumping the air like a little girl. She's so adorable, I swear. "Oooh! Yes, girls!" Kori holds both her hands up, double high-fiving her new best friend and Kennedy. Carter turns around, her hair whipping around her shoulders beautifully, and plants her hand on her hip.
"Beat that."
If only she knew that at this moment there was one thing I really wanted to beat.
Needless to say, I scored a hole in one. But my fellow partners, Reed and Ryker, did not. "Damn," Reed shakes his head when I scribble down the number 6 into his box.
The girls won, which now put us in some debt. Since it's our last night here, the next time we come back to visit, we have to pay for dinner and a movie.
They made sure to keep reminding us as we packed our stuff up to get ready for the drive back. We actually leave tomorrow morning, but no one ever wants to pack the morning of, so I'm forcing everyone to get their shit together now. My sisters were also going back home, so they wanted to say goodbye. "Don't forget, dinner and movie," Kennedy pokes my chest before kissing me on the cheek. "Visit more. Please?"
"I'll see about that," I make an uninterested face, smiling when she glares at me. "I'm kidding. I will."
She gives Ryker a kiss on the cheek as well, lingering a little more than what I'd like to see in front of me, but I let it slide because they rarely see each other. "Call me," she mumbles to him, patting his chest for good measure.
Korinne hugs us both tightly before grabbing her twin to ambush Carter, who was suffering from my mother talking her damn head off.
"Would you be mad if I came back to visit her more?" Ryker asks me, referring to Kennedy.
"Bro, she doesn't want anyone else. I don't care. Get her," I tell him seriously.
"I love you, man," he grins.
"Shut up," I roll my eyes. I love you too.
___