Empty Graves And Shallow Hearts

All I could do was gawk, and it took a good hard shove from Brandon to break my trance. He had been staring too, until Kylie showed up next to him.

"Oh dear lord," I gulped and whispered to Brandon while the man turned around to Kylie, "Is that her brother?"

Brandon chuckled. “No. That’s Oli.”

“Oli,” I sighed. “Who is he then?”

“Pretty damn delicious huh?”

“Brandon!” I turned to him, wide-eyed. Sometimes he was just a bit too straightforward.

“You know I’m right! Just look at him! I’d sure tap that!”

“Oh my goodness Brandon. What am I going to do with you?" I turned to glance at Oli again.

“Just don’t leave me locked in a room with him.” He looked over as well. “And by the way you’re staring I’d say the same goes for you!”

I snapped my head to Brandon again. He winked and walked off into the kitchen. I was about to chase after him when someone grabbed the back of my shirt. I froze.

‘Please don’t be Oli,’ I thought, ‘Please, please, please don’t be him!’

The hand yanked on my shirt. I turned around to see Kylie holding on, a bright smile on her face.

“C’mon Rainy!” She tugged my shirt again. “Meet the boys!”

I pulled myself away from her grasp. “How many are there?”

“Does it matter?”

I thought a moment. “I guess not. But still…”

“There’s like five okay? Now c’mon! They wanna meet you!”

She took my hands and put them on her shoulders, and began to lead me, like a train, to her bedroom. I could only laugh as I jumped onto her back.

“Carry me woman!”

She screamed. “Rabid chipmunk!” she started running. “Get it off, off!”

“I am going to infect your babies with ink poisoning!” I roared, going along with it.

She screamed even more and burst through her bedroom door.

“Rabid chipmunk!”

With that, Kylie, being the strong chick she is, flipped me over her head on to her bed. It was my turn to scream, and I did, when what seemed like a million hands I didn’t recognize started tickling me.

Someone grabbed my arms to keep me from pushing the hands away. There were some evil cackles too. I flipped on my stomach and managed to slide off the bed, laughing like a maniac.

“Great first impression guys!” I laughed, trying to get to the door.

I backed up into somebody, who wrapped their arms around my waist, starting to drag me back into the crowd of tickle hungry boys. I looked up to see my captor. When I finally realized who it was, my heart skipped a beat. It was Oli.

I must have been still dazed from all the tickling, but right then and there, that man had the most gorgeous smile.
My heart skipped yet another beat when he mouthed “hi” to me. I hardly realized I had been thrown back into the pit of wolves until they started with the damn tickling again. It honestly was starting to get annoying.
So, I grabbed the closest arm, and pulled them down, jumping onto their back like I had done to Kylie only moments before, still laughing. He had trouble standing up, and even more trying to get me off.

They were about to peel me off from the blond man’s body when someone yelled, “STOP!”

Everyone stopped and stared at a pink-faced Kylie.

“Thank you!” the slight annoyance fell off her face and she grinned. “You guys need to get off my friend, goodness!”

There was a sigh of relief, and the million hands were finally off me. I hopped off the guys back. He turned around, a bashful little smile on his face.

“Hi. Sorry we didn’t introduce ourselves. I’m Matt.”

I took his outstretched hand. “I’m Raina.”

Kylie came up behind me and put her arm over my shoulders.

“Alright, alright Matt. Get off her. And stop thinking like that.”

“Yeah Matty!” a slightly shorter blond one snickered. “Not all women want you the way you think.”

The other guys started cracking up. I chuckled a little too, but Matt was turning a little red, so I gave him a hug.

“Don’t worry Matty,” I giggled. “I might want you some day.”

He laughed and hugged me back. “Sweet.”

“Alright, alright,” Kylie was getting impatient. “Guys c’mere and introduce yourselves like real people.”

“But what if we aren’t real people?” one asked.

“Then we’ll deal,” Kylie retorted.

“But no!” The short one shrieked. “We could be brain eating zombies! Then what?”

“We’re gonna have to devour her soul,” a dark haired one announced. “We aren’t the pansy type of zombie. We want the tasty stuff!”

There was a chorus of yeah’s from the other three. They started moving forward, making gargling sounds and dragging their feet.

I laughed and hid behind Matt. “Save me Matty!”

“Okay!” He cackled and pushed me back a bit, then made a somewhat ninja pose. I think he was attempting a bird or a tree, I wasn’t too sure though.

It was looking like some type of underworld war was about to break out. Kylie grabbed me and pulled me away from the guys. We stood against the wall and she pointed out and named each man. They were arguing about something that had to do with me, or so I thought, and paying no attention to us whatsoever.

As I repeated the names back to Kylie, the guys started to scream. And the next scene, oh man, it was something else.

Matty was jumping into his ninja pose again, pointing a foot at Oli, who was pretending to pull out swords and growling.
The dark haired guy, who’s name was also Matt, and the shorter blond one, Lee, were taking wide stances like they were about to kick the shit out of the guy named Curtis, who was making like he was ready to pounce on the two.
They held these poses; it would’ve made a great picture. Then, as if on cue, they all sprang into action.
There was kicking and grabbing. I turned to Kylie, at a loss for words. She shrugged and nodded towards the door.
We left the five to their battle.

In the kitchen, Brandon was putting a frozen pizza in the oven, humming to himself. He closed the oven door and jumped when he saw us.

“Why hello there ladies.” He threw the pizza box on the counter and set the timer. “How are your little manfriends Rain?”

“What are you talking about Brandon?” I walked past him to the fridge and opened it up.

“I saw you looking at that Oli,” he crossed his arms. “It was like watching a dog drooling over a slab of meat or something.”

I glared at him then reached for a can of soda. “I was not.”

“Yes you were my dear!” He nudged Kylie. “And I heard you were all over, Matty, you called him?”

“That’s what Lee called him! Leave me alone!”

My best friends laughed.

“Whatever Rain!” Kylie leaned against the counter. “You were acting like a total girl in there. I know you. You like those guys.”

“Shut up Ky! Or I’m gonna have to kill you.”

She laughed again. “Say whatever you want. You like them. Or you were at least flirting with ‘em!”

“Maybe a little with my Matty.” I opened my can and took a swig. “But only ‘cause nobody else came over and introduced themselves!”

“Your Matty, Rain?” Brandon raised an eyebrow.

"That's my brother you're talking about woman!" Kylie threw her hands in the air. "Stay off of him! I don't need any nasty shit going on in this house with you and my brother! Ew!"

“Well I don’t know! There’s two of them! Leave me alone! He’s nice ok? Gosh!”

I didn’t even realize how defensive I was getting. They did though.

‘Maybe I do like them… well… nah. But they’re cute. Especially Oli…’