Shining Through the Shadow of a Star

"Do you mean to tell me, your mother, to shut up, Paul Kevin!?" my mother stood in front of her both her oldest and her middle sons, my brothers, yelling at them.

They had been going at that for a while now; ever since we came back from the studio without the girls and told her where we had left them.
The girls were gone to the mall to shop for what they might need to take with them when it was time for the tour we had in less than two weeks.
We had decided to take them with us. Well, my brothers and Jordin decided, seeing as I have nothing to do with any of the three girls. But I'm not one to complain.
Mom didn't exactly appreciate the decision that Kevin and Nick made on their own without discussing it with the whole family. And she saw no use in bringing Lauren and Jordan whatsoever.

"Mom, I'm not saying tha-" Kevin tried to speak but mom didn’t give him the chance to say anything.

At this point she was really furious, and never have I seen her this way; not even when I'm the one who messed up. She looked like she was ready to rip anyone's head if they object to what she has to say or what she thinks is the right thing. Luckily for me this time, I'm not the one in trouble. "I don't care about what you're saying Kevin," she spat. "But you've been acting really weird these days. Not the way we raised you at all. And what does your father have to say about all this? 'Long day. I'm going to sleep.' None of you is appreciating me! Except for Joe of course, 'cause I don't see him bringing a girl that he hasn’t even met in real life and saying that he's in love with her!" She finished, then turned around and sat in the single recliner in the room.
Wow, I'm being giving as a good example to my perfect brothers! I feel proud of myself. Let's just hope they don't find out that I've been listening…

"Mom, please, just hear us out first. We don't mean to disrespect you or go against you, but that doesn’t mean that having a girlfriend, even if I have only met her before on camera, is something really wrong. And you can't keep on treating Kevin like he doesn’t know what's good for him and what's not. He's the oldest of your sons and knows the most. I mean, we all look up at him." He said, all in one breath, as if his life depended on it. I could see how much Jordan means to him.

"You are not in a position that allows you to talk Nicholas. She could be a crazed fan for all you know, or even, a prostitute running from the police." She said with disgust. How can anyone think of any of the three girls this way? They were obviously as pure as us. Even Claire's family is a really conservative one and her sister wears a purity ring.
I don't really know about her, I have yet to ask her.

Nick slammed his tight fist on the coffee table next to mom's recliner, making a few crack lines in the glass on top. "Do not dare talking badly about her like this, when you haven’t even said a single word to her. She's a girl just like any other girl, just like one of your nieces. Would you really appreciate it if some lady banned their kid from them saying that they're… they're…" he stopped. He couldn’t even get it out of his mouth. And trust me, our cousins were far from being innocent.

"Well, you're right about this. I haven’t met her properly because of all the drama their friend was causing at the hospital. So why don’t you organize a little day for us?" she asked him. At first, I thought she was serious, but then I saw the mocking in her tone. "And then we could do our nails while we discuss guys, and I'd be talking about how charming my son is as a boyfriend. This is insane."

"Well, maybe if you give us a chance to prove to you that we can do things right on our own, we will prove you wrong and it wouldn’t seem all too insane to you." Kevin shot back.

"But didn’t I already grant you that Kevin? Didn’t I allow you to go all the way with your last relationship? You had barely met her and then you proposed and not a year later we were organizing a wedding that cost us a fortune. And not once did I say no or this is not how it's supposed to be. Not once was I against changing what she had to whine about all the time. My son is happy, so why not? But did you see what happened after that, Kevin? Didn’t you both see how your perfect little plan of proving yourself big and mature turned out? Or do you need a reminder of how you even met the girl you now claim to like?" Mom's eyes were glossy now, and so were Kevin's.

She might be a bit harsh with her words but she's only looking out for her sons, and nothing more.

A single tear ran down Kevin's cheek before he wiped it and spoke up. "That was a mistake. Danielle was a mistake. But Lauren is something different, trust me."

Mom opened her arms for him to settle in them. He came closer to her and wrapped her arms around her whilst she patted his back. She let out a sigh. "Kevin, I only want what's best for you, and I never want to see you hurt. Both of you, you're my own flesh and blood."

"But that doesn’t give you the right to speak badly about my girlfriend." Nick said back, his jaw clenched and his fist still tight over the shattered glass.

At the same instant that I saw mom opening her mouth to reply back, the doorbell rang. But it didn’t seem to faze any of the three people in that room.
I went to open it, only to be faced by Claire and Jordan.
"Oh, hi girls, what are you doing here?" I stumbled on my words. I couldn’t let them in, and I mostly couldn’t let Jordan hear what's been said.

"The plan was to meet you guys here after we finish shopping. It's six o'clock, so we're done." Jordan answered. Claire was, for some reason, looking everywhere but in my direction.

"Oh, uh… But that was fast. We… we're not ready yet." The girls looked at me like I had grown a second head. "I mean, Jordin isn’t here yet and Kevin is taking a shower and Nick… Nick is out." I explained. I thought they had believed me but apparently not.

"Where is-" Jordan started to ask, obviously wanting to know where did her guy go. But Nick's voice, or more like shouts, came to her response before I could figure out another lie. "Oh, he's here. Care to explain?"

"Um, he must be back." I said. Jordan started making her way to where the voice came from when I stopped her. "Uh, but he's, he's shirtless…"

She raised an eyebrow. "What are you hiding Jonas?"

"Where's Lauren?" I tried to change the subject, but that didn’t stop Jordan and Claire from going where I was before.

I followed them to see my mom and brothers calming a bit. "Alright, I will give her a chance. Both of them. But that doesn’t mean that I like Lauren any more than a few minutes ago." Mom had said, unaware of our presence.

Suddenly, the door clicked open. "Guys, I hope you don’t mind that I let myself in but the door was open."
The six of us, including the three who didn’t know we're here, froze at the sound of Lauren's voice.