Brothers

Everyone stared at Alana. What dirty little secret could she have possibly discovered while rolling around on the floor with Vienna? Did she have a penis or something? No, Caleb would surely have noticed that... I winced. I didn’t want to think about that.

‘And what would that be?’ Vienna sneered, but she was holding the phone in her hand without dialling regardless.

Alana raised an eyebrow. ‘You seriously don’t know?’

‘I have no idea,’ Vienna snapped, putting one hand on her hip. She wasn’t the only one to have no idea.

Alana made a face, pulling her own mobile out of her pocket and messing about on it for a few seconds. When she held it up to show it to Vienna, the colour on the other girl’s face drained. ‘You’ve been hiring a prostitute for the past God knows how long. Do you really want the world to know about that?’

On the screen of Alana’s phone was her Twitter page, which read, ‘Can’t believe @ViennaFriendly hires prostitutes lol patheticus maximus.’

Vienna’s face was pale. ‘Nobody will believe you,’ she choked.

‘They will if your new “boyfriend” happens to get arrested for – oh my! – prostitution.’

Since when was my best friend so scheming? Like, seriously. I must remember to never mess with her, ever. A quick glance around the room confirmed that everybody else was thinking pretty much the same thing.

‘In fact,’ Alana hissed, ‘I might post it anyway.’ Her finger hovered dangerously over the “Select” button. ‘You messed with my family,’ her hand slipped into mine, ‘my friends-’

‘That’s us,’ Peyton interrupted, gesturing to himself and Jayden. ‘We’re not related to her.’

‘-and my crush,’ Alana finished, which actually caused Rain to blush a little. The twins looked disappointed.

‘I get it,’ Vienna said quickly, backtracking. ‘I’m sorry. I’m a bitch. I’m sorry.’

Alana smiled. ‘No honey. You’re not a bitch. You’re a wannabe. I’m a bitch. And you’re gonna be sorry you ever chose to fuck with me.’

She pressed down on the button as Vienna’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open to shout, ‘No!’ Biting her lip furiously, she started pounding on her phone.

After a second Vienna looked up at Alana, frowning. ‘It’s not there,’ she said quietly, confused.

‘Yeah. Now get the fuck out or I’ll post it for real.’

Vienna stood rooted in place for a second, then grabbed her bag and bolted for the door, but Alana caught her arm before she could make good on her escape.

‘Just a second,’ my best friend said coolly. ‘I think you owe Caleb something in the region of, what?’ She glanced at Caleb. ‘About €4,000 should get Aiden through his first year in college, right?’

Caleb stared at her, then nodded dumbly.

‘€4,000 then, if you have it handy,’ Alana looked back to Vienna, arching an eyebrow.

Vienna twisted her face into an expression of disbelief, but duly pulled her chequebook out of her purse and wrote a hasty cheque. She handed it to Alana, but snatched it back as she reached to take it.

‘That’s it?’ she asked warily. ‘No more?’

Alana smirked. ‘If the police show up at any point don’t think I’ll hesitate to out you.’

Vienna nodded, defeated, and handed the cheque to Alana, who let go of the other girl’s arm. Vienna left quickly, and the sound of her politely asking Charles to send the car around was heard before the door shut behind her.

There was silence in the sitting room and Alana folded the check into a paper airplane, her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on making the money aerodynamic. Then she closed one eye and pointed the plane at Caleb, who snatched it out of the air and opened it, staring at it wide-eyed.

‘She actually did it,’ he whispered. ‘€4,000.’

‘A slight improvement on three days in jail, admittedly,’ Alana said casually.

‘What?’

Alana grinned broadly, obviously excited despite her controlled exterior. ‘Seventy-two hours. Maximum jail term for solicitation in Ireland.’

Everyone in the room stared at her in shock. ‘I’m kind of surprised you wouldn’t have looked that up yourself,’ she went on, obviously enjoying her moment of triumph, ‘given your personal stake in the matter. Good thing Vienna is as careless about it as you, right?’

‘Are you joking?’ Jayden demanded from in front of the TV.

Alana shook her head, still grinning. ‘Although,’ she added, her face straightening as she thought about it. ‘I probably did save you from, you know, being forced to provide your services for free a couple times.’ She bit her lip. ‘So there’s that...’

Caleb stood up, pushing the cheque into his pocket with more care and reverence than he afforded me as a toddler. Then he walked across the room and wrapped a surprised Alana in a hug. They stayed there, hugging, for a few seconds, until Caleb pulled away and looked at the guys, jerking his head towards the door. Wordlessly they all got up, and followed him into the hall.

‘Where are you going?’ I demanded as Alana and I followed them too. They were putting on their coats.

‘Out,’ Caleb said simply.

‘Out where?’

‘Got some business to take care of.’

‘What business?’

‘Private business.’

‘Can I come?’

‘Hell no.’

‘Can I?’ Alana asked excitedly, and I scowled at her.

‘Hell no,’ Rain butted in. So he knew what was going on then.

Alana scowled then as well. ‘Why not? I’m the same age as you guys.’

‘Yeah,’ Jayden butted in. ‘But you’re a girl.’

‘I’m not a girl,’ I interrupted.

‘That’s debateable...’ Peyton muttered under his breath, and I scowled again til Caleb walked up to me, his body pressing right against mine. I swallowed nervously, looking up into his eyes, hypnotized. I thought he might kiss me, but then I gasped as he grabbed my crotch instead.

‘Nope,’ he said, stepping away from me and grinning at the twins. ‘He’s definitely a guy.’

Peyton and Jayden smirked at each other and opened the front door. I was still standing there, shocked, as the guys all traipsed outside onto the sidewalk. Rain was about to close the door behind him when he stopped, turned and came back inside.

‘Almost forgot,’ he said cheerfully, then grabbed Alana by the shoulders and kissed her forcefully on the lips. When he pulled away she stumbled slightly, her eyes opening in a daze.

‘Okay,’ she breathed as Rain grinned and left, the door slamming behind him.

Caleb

‘Dude,’ I said in congratulations, fist-bumping Rain as he sat into the passenger seat beside me. The twins were in the back, Jayden leaning his head on his brother’s shoulder as Peyton played absently with his hair.

‘You and Aiden?’ Rain asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shrugged. ‘Yeah.’

My best friend laughed. ‘You are so fucked up,’ he said. ‘First you’re a prostitute, now you’re banging your little brother.’

‘I had a difficult childhood,’ I said flatly, starting the car and pulling away from the kerb.

‘Yeah, no shit,’ Rain muttered.

‘Have you tapped that yet?’ Peyton demanded from behind us.

‘Huh?’ I asked, distracted. Rain was pouring heavily and the windscreen wipers could hardly keep up; most of my concentration was going on not killing us.

‘Aiden. God I bet he’s tight...’ Peyton was practically salivating.

I glared at him in the rear-view. ‘Shut the fuck up,’ I warned him levelly.

‘You should probably ask him out soon anyway,’ Peyton went on, ignoring me. ‘Since he’s freaking out so bad about it.’

My glare turned into a frown of confusion. ‘What?’

‘We may or may not have kidnapped him and spoken to him about this already,’ Jayden murmured. He was kissing Peyton’s neck.

‘Could you please stop mauling each other a focus for a second? What are you talking about?’

Still ignoring me, Peyton arched his neck and pushed his fingers further into Jayden’s hair, pulling him closer.

‘Well he was pretty fucking upset about the whole Vienna thing,’ Peyton went on. Rain was turned around in the passenger seat, blatantly watching, while I glanced in the rear-view every now and again, keeping my main focus on the road, which had a lot of surface water at this point. ‘And it turns out he’s in love with you.’

‘What?!’ I shouted, slamming inadvertently on the breaks. The car skidded sideways, hydroplaning. Everyone started shouting and seconds later we came to a stop, facing in the opposite direction. There were no other cars on the road.

There was a minute of silence as we all stared straight ahead, gripping whatever was in reaching distance.

‘He’s in love with you,’ Peyton said then, resuming where he’d left off, but his voice was shaky. ‘He didn’t admit to it, but he got really nervous when we asked him about it.’

‘So, you know,’ Jayden added. ‘Try not to kill yourself before you can resolve that.’

Rain and I glanced at each other, then looked into the back, and suddenly we were all laughing nervously.

Carefully, I reversed the car and turned it around so we were going in the right direction again, and ten minutes later I was pulling up in front of a slightly run-down looking house on the other side of town. The garden was overgrown and the car in the driveway had two flat tires.

‘Okay,’ I said, undoing my seatbelt. ‘Let’s do this shit.’