I Won't Call This Hell

"Hey kid," my brother said, dropping his wife's hand and wrapping his arms around me.

"Hey Jeremy," I said, letting him squeeze me.

"You're so much bigger now," he smiled. His smile was perfect, his hair still the same golden color my mother's used to be. The hair was getting long, and his bangs were hanging into his dark eyes. He looked just like he was when he'd left years ago: important, perfect, a real somebody.

"Its been almost three years," I said. He laughed, then looked over my head.

"Hey Mom," he said, and then he disappeared into the house behind me. I could hear my parents fussing over him already.

"Hey," Angel said, lifting her hand and waving a little.

"Hey," I said, not really caring. I'd never really liked Angel, even before she'd let my brother knock her. I'd always figured Jeremy had fallen for her because of her sex appeal. She always had this sultry look on her face, and she seemed completely oblivious to it. Her face screamed first class hoe, but as far as I knew she'd always been faithful. Always. Which sort of amazed me, considering that guys had always been hitting on her, even with Jeremy as her boyfriend and his baby in her stomach. I always thought it was that hoe face.

A little yawn came from by my knees, and it made me look down. I smiled at my niece, who looked right back at me with her cute 3-year-old eyes glaring at me.

"Lola, you shouldn't make faces like that, or your face will stay that way," I said, bending at the waist to pick her up. Her lips, naturally pink and pouty, were formed into a pout. After taking notice of her, picking her up, and tickling her tummy a little, she was instant smiles.

She was a beautiful girl, acquiring the best features of both Jeremy and Angel. I love her, and I like to think she loves me, too. It was weird, how the two people I usually can't stand could create a little darling like Lola.

**

Early, I had thought Jeremy and Angel had been annoying and hard to be around. It was later, when we were all sitting around dinner, that I realized that they weren't close to number one.

"Well, you might as well answer it," my mom said, looking at me from her spot at the table, "you've already disrupted dinner."

I knew I'd messed up, but I did what she said and answered my obnoxious, ringing phone.

"Hello?" I asked as quietly as I could.

"Hey!" Their voice was awake, and loud, and I watched as everyone watched my expression. I hadn't known who had called, but now my face was crumbling, my jaw hardening, and my hand automatically moving to hit my face.

"Hello? Um, this is John... Are you there? Hello?"

I hung up, not bothering to say anything. That hadn't gone as planned; not one bit.

"Who is John?" Jeremy and my parents said at the same time, and my hand smacked into my face again.

This definitely had not gone as I had planned.

I had planned to be alone, or busy enough to where no one had noticed I was dissing someone over the phone. I hadn't planned on being at my dining room table, eating with my family, who was more than ready to deliver something equal to the Spanish Inquisition.