Sweet Little Sister

“Hello?”

I hesitated for a moment, leaving a dead silence prevail on the phone line. He noticed.

“Anna is that you?”
I bit my lip, was I so predictable after all? If I could have smacked myself, I would have done so but I was too caught up in trying to think what to say next in order to save myself from awkward silence.

“Hi,” I said in barely a whisper.

“Are you okay? We kind of lost touch the past weeks.”

“Yeah, its been crazy here,” I said, recalling what kind of crazy I had let myself indulge into. “All I do is go to school and stay inside.”

“I’d really like to see you, you know, holidays and all… have you got some free time?” he asked hopefully. I tensed, wondering what Rachel would do if he knew I’d be going out with Joe. Maybe he didn’t have to know. But deep down, a huge part of me didn’t even want to see Joe, I’d rather sit here and stare at Sebastian. Ouch, that was mean.

"Umm sure, the guys are going to leave soon, they're going to the studio, you could drop by..."

I gave him the address and proceeded to mentally hang myself. I walked into the kitchen and immediately started cleaning up, I didn't want him to see the place like this.

"What are you going?" Snake asked aggressively. "I was gonna eat that!"

He pointed towards the piece of pizza that was now in the trash.

"Its blue! With mold!"
He rolled his eyes and put his guitar in its case, flinging it over his shoulder and opening the door and screaming at the rest to follow. One by one they left, Rachel waving goodbye and Sebastian winking at me. It made me feel even more guilty but I had to sort the Joe thing out.
As time passed by, I kept getting even more anxious, wondering what I should say, an easy way to get rid of him, not that I really wanted to... From the little that I knew him, he was wonderful and I had to admit that he was gorgeous too, just looking in those brown eyes could make your knees weak.

There was a knock on the door and my heart was suddenly up in my throat. With trembling legs, I opened it, coming face to face with the man I was previously thinking of. He flashed a dazzling smile and kissed me softly at the lips before walking inside. I stood at the doorway for a moment, too freaked out about this whole thing. I was a goner, I knew it.

He sat at the couch, patting the cushions for me to sit beside him. I did and he took a deep breath. What was this? Did he have something to tell me?

"I've got some news," he said. Please let him break up with me, I'd even pretend to tear up if I had to.

"Okay... just spit it out," I said a bit too enthusiastically. He gave me a funny look for a moment but just shook his head and proceeded.

"So, a friend got me this really amazing job in a small record label," he said. "And its in Los Angeles."

"Oh," I said, waiting for it to come, the cliche thing that he'll call me every day and have a long distant relationship and crap like that. I had heard about the Californian girls, they'd pounce on him in a blink of an eye, they'd probably mistake him for Joe Perry and go nuts.

"I was thinking, maybe you want to come with me..."

"Its okay, this would happen eventually," I said then stopped talking. "What did you say?"

"Maybe you want to come with me to Los Angeles?" he asked again, looking me straight in the eyes, holding my hands in his with the most pleading gaze ever. What the fuck? No, seriously, what the fuck?

"You're not serious are you?"
He laughed, clearly indicating that he was serious. Holy crap.

"What about Rachel, I can't leave him!" I found myself saying.

"Eventually one of you will leave each other, I'm not forcing you but I think it will do you some good leave, you're always complaining about him bossing you around."

Sure Joe, but there was also Sebastian, who has made love to me during the weeks we haven't seen each other. I don't want to stay away from him because I know he'd find another girl as soon as I was out of the picture.

Joe pulled me closer to him, grazing his mouth along my neck. I gasped but at the same time compared him to Sebastian... I didn't have to say who would win, hands down. Just when he was about to kiss me full on and passionately, the door slammed open.

"Yeah and they were signed right away," Scotti said as he walked in first in the apartment. He stopped dead in his tracks and didn't really know what to do. Joe had the same look on his face, the what-to-do-now-I-am-dying kind of look.

I gritted my teeth and waited for Rachel to walk in. I saw his brown mane of hair come in view as he pushed Scotti aside, wondering why his friend was a frozen statue.

"Oh... ummm... hello," said Rachel. My eyes bulged out of their sockets. He was not screaming or punching anybody. And he said hello, he never said hello, he usually said what's up or hey, to his friends. And Joe wasn't even his friend. Had he taken something?

"Hi..." Joe said sheepishly. I wanted to dig up a hole and bury myself.

They were all standing up and then I noticed Sebastian. He looked pretty pissed but tried not to show it. Slowly, with baby steps, Rachel took the furthest seat possible away from us. Yeah, very smooth.

"So... I came here to ask Anna to come with me to Los Angeles."
I glared at Joe, could he have been anymore straight-forward. Oh my god, I was going to lose my brother tonight, I better be ready to dial the ambulance, this was going to be bad.

"Okay, that's... convenient."
Woah... wait, did he just say that? Had I become an object to be passed around when my brother got tired of taking care of me.

"I mean, we're going to L.A too, to mix the album and yeah... make it our base... or shit like that," Rachel said awkwardly. I admired his social skills with guys that could bang his sister.

"That's great!" Joe exclaimed, hugging me. I saw Rachel look away when we hugged, clearly he didn't like public display of affection. And Sebastian sure didn't, he had retreated in the kitchen, muttering something about ice cream and ham, he was going to on a killing spree if he stayed a bit longer and if he did, everybody would wonder what was his problem...
I pretended to smile and thanked my brother. I had never felt more fake in my life.

"So, I'll pick you up tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow?" I screamed. "That's fast!"
Joe thought I was excited and he smiled even more. "Yeah, tomorrow, I'll be here in the morning."

He pecked me on the cheek and left as fast as he could. I would have done the same but wouldn't have used the door, no, I'd use the window, since there was a nice drop 'til the ground, a drop that would put me out of this misery.

Rachel looked at me one last time and went to the bedroom, probably to sleep. Scotti, Snake and Robert were still looking at me. I gave them the middle finger and went to bed as well.
Complicated was nothing compared to what I was going through.