Green Light Means Go

“What are you doing here?” I asked simply and folded my arms. My brother just brushed past me and headed straight into the living room, stopping to ruffle my hair before he made his way past me fully. He certainly looked the part of egotistic rock star. He had hidden his eyes behind one of the biggest pair of aviator shades I had ever seen and was wearing what looked like a brand new leather jacket. His dark brown hair also stuck out in strange directions which gave him a 'I've just got out of bed' look.

“Chill out Kelsey.” Craig flashed a pearly white smile and flopped down on the sofa. “Aren’t you glad to see me?”

“You really do not want to know the answer to that question.” I replied as I watched my brother in disbelief.

“Can we come in?” Nate’s voice came from behind me. I spun round so I was facing him and James and bit my lip. "Its kind of a bit cold out here."

“Sorry I completely forgot you were there!” I apologized and stepped to the side so they could walk through without almost knocking me off my feet like my brother had done. James walked past me and flashed a kind yet apologetic smile, but Nate seemed to be lingering close to the doorway. He was inside, but it seemed like he didn’t want to follow the other too further into my house.

“I apologize in advance.” Nate whispered in my ear and then slowly edged towards one of the armchairs. I closed the door and followed suit. There wasn’t anywhere to sit any more, so I ended up perching on the coffee table facing the three of them. An awkward silence followed before my brother began to speak again.

“So Kelsey?” Craig asked and slid his sunglasses off his face and folded them up so he could slip them into his jacket pocket. “Missed me?” He asked with a grin.

“Do you want the honest answer?” I asked and folded my arms.

“No, I want you to lie.” Craig rolled his eyes and looked at me like he used to do when I was five, “Come on Kelsey, use your brain a little.”

“Have I hell missed you” I answered, trying to keep my voice from sounding too angry, but the emotion was still there. I could tell from the way my brothers face dropped slightly. “You haven’t even bothered visiting while you have been on your whole new found stardom high.”

“I’ve been busy.” Craig regained composure and acted as though I hadn't said what I did. I just shook my head and stood up.

“Did you not hear what I just said?” I asked. “Did you expect me to welcome you with open arms?”

“Actually yes I did.” Craig laughed, “I am your big brother after all.”

“Yes but you have not spoken to me since you hit the big time.” I pointed out. “Two years and the most I have had from you is a minute long phone call, and that was almost a year ago.”

“The music biz is a very busy business Kels,” Craig continued. “I haven’t had the time to call everyone I know to chat.”

“Hello – I’m family.” I rolled my eyes and folded my arms. “You should have made time.”

“She has a point Craig...” Nate added quietly and flicked his brown hair away from his eyes. I glanced over at him with a small grateful smile before turning back to my brother.

“Does this have anything to do with you?” Craig asked and glared over at his friend. It was now that I understood what the bubbly newsreader meant about that picture. Not only did Nate and James look completely pissed off with my brother, but I could tell they also didn’t want to be here.

“Nate was just telling the truth Craig.” It was now James' turn to join in the argument.

“Yes Craig, did you forget you had a family?” I asked, “Or did you just conveniently leave us out of your life?”

"Things have been pretty focused on the band lately." My brother casually shrugged his shoulders and drummed his fingers on the chair arm. It was like he did not even care that the three other people in the room with him were totally against him.

"Focused on the band my arse!" Nate scoffed. "You would rather be out getting smashed then actually paying any attention to the band anymore."

"Nate, like I said before, shut the hell up." My brother calmly replied, not once moving from his slouched state. "I told you that this has nothing to do with you, its between my sister and I."

I glanced between my brother and his best friend. Part of me wanted to figure out what was going wrong, but part of me wanted to just make my brother suffer for not bothering with us for the past two years. I stood up from the coffee table and sighed.

"Who says I want anything to do with you anymore." I shook my head and spoke quietly before leaving the room as quickly as I could without falling over anything. It was one thing that my brother had the nerve to show up, but to pretend that everything was just perfectly fine was taking it to a whole new level. I dreaded to think about how Danny was going to react when he came home, if Craig even stayed that long.

After leaving the living room rather randomly, I made my way to my room. I had not realized how angry I actually was with my brother till he was there in the same room as me, and realizing he didn't seem to have a care in the world about his family anymore just added to my anger. It was probably a smart move leaving the room when I did, I can be very easily pissed off.

I sat down on the floor, with my back resting against my bed, and let out a heavy sigh. This was the one thing that had ever annoyed me to the extent that I had wanted to physically hurt someone, and I didn't like it.

The door separating my bedroom from the hallway creaked open and I glanced round to see Nate stood in the doorway. He looked unsure weather to come into my room, so I smiled and patted the floor next to me - an invitation for him to come and join me.

“Now I get what you said earlier,” I laughed half-heartily and turned my head away from him so I was once again staring forward, “About apologizing in advance.”

Nate came and sat down on the floor next to me. He smiled lopsidedly and clasped his hands together, twiddling his thumbs absent-mindedly.

“Yeah, again I am sorry.” Nate looked over at me as he spoke. “Its kind of weird how two years pass when your best friend has his head shoved up his own backside.”

“I feel sorry for you having to put up with him.”

“Seriously, if I had known he was going to act like a complete arse I would not have signed up for this.” Nate admitted with a sigh. I looked over at him both sympathetically and slightly confused.

“So even if someone had said to you 'Your going to get your fifteen minutes of fame but your best friend will be an arse' you would have said no.”

“Well the fame thing sounds pretty cool,” Nate stopped twiddling his thumbs and placed his hands behind his head in a really relaxed way, “But I think I am worth way more then fifteen minutes, don't you?” He flashed me a cheeky grin and I just shook my head.

“Who thinks a lot of themselves now?” I asked and playfully hit him on the arm with my hand.

“Less of the violence, I need this arm to play guitar.” He pretended to wince and clutched the part of his arm I had hit.

I hit his arm again, just because I knew it would annoy him. Nate looked shocked at first, but then narrowed his eyes playfully.

The next thing I knew Nate's hands were at my sides tickling me. Then the fits of giggles came. I mentally cursed myself for being so ticklish in such an obvious spot.

“Since when were you this ticklish?” Nate asked with a slightly evil grin on his face. I tried replying but I couldn't stop laughing for long enough to put a full sentence together.

“Nate -- this -- is -- not -- fair!” I squealed between giggles. Nate just continued to attack my sides until he actually had to stop because it was getting to the point where I couldn't breath properly.

Somehow I had ended up lying with my back against the floor and Nate was practically sat on top of me. It was one of those situations you would expect to be quite awkward, but in reality it wasn't.

“That was not funny.” I took a deep breath in once Nate stopped tickling me, an attempt to get my breathing back down to normal.

“It was pretty funny from my point of view.” Nate winked and rested his hands at either side of my head. I glared at him and took another deep breath of air.

“Your really mean sometimes.” I laughed breathlessly and closed my eyes briefly. Before I opened my eyes again, I felt something brushing my hair away from my face. My eyes fluttered open and looked straight up into his dark eyes.

“God I've missed you.” He whispered, his voice was full of an emotion that I could not quite decipher. I wanted to reply but something was stopping me. I'm not quite sure what it was, but something was telling me that now was not the best time to start a random trivial conversation. My heart began to thud against my ribcage with more force then necessary, which made my attempts at calming my breathing even harder to achieve.

Now I would have been quite pleased to just stay where I was for a bit longer, it was nice to spend time with Nate again. He had always been almost like another older brother to me, because he was always round at our house due to him being such good friends with Craig. But something about this was surreal, it did not feel quite like it should have done. It felt different ... in a good way.

I opened my mouth to speak, because the silence was getting to me slightly, but a sudden bang came from downstairs that startled me and I could hear shouting through the floorboards. I groaned and closed my eyes again.

“Danny's back.” I said simply and let out a huge sigh.

“And that's a problem because?” Nate asked.

“Because I think that there is a good chance that Danny will want to rip Craig's head off.” My eyes were open once again and were once again staring back up into his. “Can I get up please?” I asked, because he was still sat in a way that meant I kind of couldn't get up. Nate chuckled to himself and pushed himself up from the floor. I followed suit by sitting up and just as I was about to push myself up so I was standing Nate extended his hand out to me.

“Being a bit helpful aren't we?” I asked as I took his hand and he pulled me up from the floor, “Or do you just feel bad about nearly tickling me to death?”

“No, I'm just being kind.” Nate grinned and put his arm round my shoulders.

We both walked downstairs, Nate removing his arm as soon as we were in sight of the living room, which I found quite strange. As if on cue, Danny began shouting again as soon as I stepped into the living room. Unlike Craig, who had not moved from his position on the couch, Danny was stood up at the opposite side of the room with his arms straight down by his sides with his fists clenched slightly. James had taken himself out of the firing line and was stood near the door that lead to the kitchen.

“Why the hell do you think you have the right to come waltzing back in here after not bothering with us for two whole years?” Danny shouted at my eldest brother.

“Its my home just as much as it is yours Daniel.” Craig replied. Danny cringed at the use of his full name, he hated it when people called him Daniel because that'swhat our dad called him when he used to live with us.

“No, your home is where ever the hell you have been living, not here.” Danny replied and folded his arms.

“Oh I'm not going to be staying long,” Craig sighed, “Just up here for a flying visit to say hi to everyone.”

“Craig, you wouldn't even be up here if James and I hadn't talked you into it.” Nate joined in. I glanced over quickly at Nate, shocked he had even managed to get him within a ten mile radius of the house.

“Nate, like I said before, shut the hell up.”

Nate's brown eyes narrowed and he muttered something that I couldn't quite hear, judging from his facial expression it was probably best that I didn't hear what he said.

“Look, you know what. I can't even be bothered having this argument with you!” Danny sighed. Then he looked over at me. “Kelsey, can I talk to you for a sec?”

I nodded and he walked past me and back up the stairs. I followed suit, trying to think of a way to calm him down.

“Did you know anything about this?” He asked me once we were far away from everyone downstairs to be out of earshot.

“What do you think?” I asked, “I wasn't expecting him to suddenly show up on our doorstep you know.”

“I bet this is a great early birthday present for you.” Danny joked.

“Oh yeah its brilliant.” I rolled my eyes, “If he does stick around for my actual birthday though, you can't murder him.” I pointed my finger at my brother and he held up his hands in mock surrender.

“I'm not making any promises.” He replied.

“How do you think Mum's going to react?” I asked.

“God knows.” Danny shrugged, “Do you have any idea why Nate and James are up here as well?” He asked.

“Beats me.” I replied simply, I had been thinking the exact same thing.

But I wasn't exactly complaining...