You Are My Addiction

"Grant! Over here!" I heard Mitch call down the hallway. School was officially done for the day and I couldn't begin to express how happy that made me. Especially after sitting through one of Mr. Connoway's physics lessons; not fun. I walked over to Mitch who had been talking to Connor, probably about how much fun they were going to have up at Connor's cottage this weekend, and smiled at him. He seemed to be in a slightly better mood than this morning, but I didn't want to jinx it.

"What's up?" I said, not failing to notice how Mitch's face lit up whenever he was around Connor. Something inside me stirred uneasily and I pushed it aside, ignoring it.

"Well, Connor here thinks it would be a good idea to go surfing tonight. You in?" I looked over at Connor who was waiting intently for me to answer Mitch's question. Did I really want to surf tonight? The last time I had gone surfing with Connor and Mitch, I was ditched in the middle of it so that they could go hook up in the back of Connor's car. They weren't together, and I wasn't even sure if Connor swung that way or just didn't care who he hooked up with as long as he got some action, but I knew that Mitch had a thing for him and it made me not like Connor. Especially if Mitch's feelings were involved and Connor's weren't.

"Aren't you two going up to the cottage tonight?" I asked, remembering that it was Friday and we had the whole weekend ahead of us. Connor and Mitch usually had parties up at the cottage every weekend and I usually stayed back. Not because I'm straight edge or anything, but mostly because I didn't know anyone and I always felt awkward.

"Nah, not tonight." Mitch said shrugging. "Thought you and I would have a night out with Lily." This was code for, I-want-to-have-a-guys-night-without-Connor-so-I'm-bringing-your-little-sister-into-it-so-that-he-doesn't-get-upset.

"She's been pestering me about seeing you lately, you'll have made her night." I said, and caught Mitch winking at me when Connor wasn't looking. I decided that if I got to see Mitch tonight, then I really didn't need to go surfing. "You two go ahead though, I don't think I'm up for surfing tonight."

"Alright. I'll swing by around 7 then." Mitch said and then he and Connor were walking down the hall towards the exit doors. I turned away from them and started walking in the opposite direction, not wanting to see Mitch having such a good time exchanging happy words with Connor. I don't know why it got under my skin so much.

I drove home in my beloved shiny black 2012 BMW that had been a birthday present from my grandparents and plopped down on the living room couch. Ashley sent me a text telling me to meet her at the mall, but I didn't really feel like going on a shopping spree, which is exactly what going to the mall with Ashley turns into. Instead I watched "Friends" reruns and waited for 7.

7 didn't come as quick as I had hoped. It felt like hours had passed by but it had only been two. It was 4:30 now and "Friends" had stopped playing just in time for Lily to come home and change the channel to her princess cartoons. I watched as her face lit up at the sight of Cinderella; her cheeks so full of life and her eyes wide. She was taking small bites of a granola bar my mom had given her as her after school snack and was sitting so close to the TV it couldn't have been healthy.

"Lil, why don't you come sit up here with me?" I said sweetly, so that she wouldn't think I was bossing her around, but wanting her to sit beside her big brother instead. She flicked her hand at me as a way to tell me to be quiet and continued watching her show. "Hey, booger." This time she turned to look at me expectantly. I nodded to the spot beside me and this time she listened, sitting down on the couch and cuddling into my chest. "How was school today?" I asked, desperately wanting to know if the kids were still bugging her. She looked away from the TV again, ditching the show for our conversation, and looked up at me.

"Alright." She said, quietly. "Mrs. Honeyman let me stay inside and help her sort artwork at recess, so nobody was able to pick on me today." I wondered if Mrs. Honeyman knew about the kids picking on her and if she did why she wouldn't try and fix the problem, rather than keep my kid sister locked up while the other kids go outside and play. I don't know if Lily has ever told my mom about the kids at her school and if this continued I was going to have to take matters into my own hands. I hugged her closer to me and ruffled her hair.

"You don't have to hide, Lily. I'm going to get this straightened out, okay?" I promised, hoping that I really could get this whole mess figured out. She nodded at me and went back to watching her cartoons, apparently finished with our discussion. I watched her, so happy watching her shows, and felt a pang in my chest knowing that school wasn't making her happy. She deserved the world, and I would spend the rest of my life trying to give her it.

We watched the rest of Cinderella together and continued on through Doc Mcstuffins before we were all called to the dinner table with plates of steak and vegetables waiting for us. I took a bite of my mashed potatoes and looked over at my dad expectantly. "What?" He says, suspicious.

"Where's your dinner rant tonight, Dad? We're all waiting for it." I gave him a smirk as he rolled his eyes playfully at me. My dad does this thing where he forgets that he's already told everybody every day that they shouldn't leave their clothes laying around and that granola bar wrappers are to be thrown in the garbage. All of which were usually directed at me but meant for Lily since he didn't like yelling at his five year old daughter. I never took his orders personally because I knew he wasn't trying to be an asshole.

"Ha ha, very funny. Eat your dinner, you shi-"

"Language!" My mother said staring at my dad incredulously. I looked over at him and shrugged as he threw his hands up in defense. Lily usually never understood what was going on and so she sat in silence and scarfed down her asparagus. We come from a vegetable loving family and I think it's worked well in our favour. We're pretty healthy people, aside from the occasional Wendy's run.

"Language, dad, jeez." I said, rolling my eyes and turning over to Lily who was sitting beside me. "Lily, don't mind dad, he's off his rocker tonight." I winked at her and she stared at me clearly confused.

"What rocker?" She asked, curious. We all laughed at her innocence and inability to catch onto sarcasm and dinner conversation jokes and continued eating. "Dad, what rocker?" She was really persistent when she wanted to be.

"Don't worry about it, Kiddo, your brother is just being a pain in my ass," my mom gave him a warning look and he added, "tronaut." Another chuckle from everyone at the table. Lily went back to eating, like the justification of me being a pain in his astronaut was perfectly reasonable. I elbowed her lightly and she grinned up at me with green teeth.

"Is Mitch coming over tonight?" Mom asked, as she reached over her plate to grab the pepper. I nodded, my mouth too full for me to answer. "You two can have the basement tonight since there's more room down there for you to play your video games or whatever it is you two do. I won't be needing to do office work down there tonight." I nodded again, swallowing the rest of my steak.

"Thanks!" I said smiling. My mom never gave up her office space for anyone. It usually took me a week to convince her to let Mitch and I use it to game. It wasn't really an office; just a room with a big TV, some couches, a desk, and infinite amounts of space. Well maybe not infinite, but there was a lot of room.

The rest of dinner went pretty much the same as it always does. Mom asked dad how work was, dad asked mom how work was, both of them asked Lily and I about school, and then eventually we all started talking about whatever it was that was on our minds that day. Sometimes we got into heated debates about the universe and sometimes we complained about how Mr. Hecton down the street was always grumping at people. Tonight we talked about the summer and the possibility of moving. The thing I loved about my parents was that I always had a voice in their big decisions. If I wanted to move, then we moved. If I didn't, then they would discuss it with my opinions and reasons in mind. I didn't always get what I wanted, but I liked that they thought first and acted later and kept me in the loop. I didn't want to move.

Mitch came over a half hour early and plopped down on the couch in the basement beside me. His hair was wet, turning his usual dirty blonde hair into a dark brown. He was wearing his board shorts that seemed mostly dry and a plain black t-shirt. I wanted to ask him about surfing, but I also didn't want to hear about Conner either. "You missed some good waves!" Mitch said, bringing the topic up anyways. He wasn't very good at mind reading.

"I just wasn't up to it today." I said, shrugging like not wanting to go surfing was outrageous of me. Mitch gave me a side glance, calling my bluff, and grabbed a controller off the coffee table.

"Whatever, man. COD or GTA?" I could feel him trying to mask his being irritated with playing video games and I didn't know what I was doing to make him so on edge today. What did it matter if I didn't go surfing tonight? He knew I wasn't that big on it in the first place. I grabbed the other controller and sat back against the couch.

"Call of Duty," I said, trying to sound happier than I felt. "let's do it."