This Was Never Gonna Be Simple

I gratefully accepted Aled's offer to stay the night, despite my lack of preparation. It didn't really matter that I had nothing with him, though. Aled had sent Ian upstairs in search of pyjamas or any reasonable sort of clothing to sleep in that might fit me, and even Shay seemed a little less hostile, lending me a shirt when Ian's didn't quite fit.

The only thing I really had to bother about was Jay, and he was usually pretty chill with anything. Like, literally, I could ring him and tell him I'd just been kidnapped by Somalian pirates and Jay would just tell me to watch out for hot pirate dudes. Actually, I've never seen a hot pirate in my life, but eh, you get the gist. I made sure to tell Jay where I was anyway, though.

Seeing as I didn't have my own phone - sad, isn't it? - I borrowed the house phone and quickly informed my younger brother of my whereabouts. I wanted to sit and explain it all properly, but Ian was an impatient fuck, so I sighed and mumbled a quick goodnight, promising to call tomorrow, before hanging up and glaring at Ian. He smiled sheepishly at me and I shook my head. What am I going to do with him?

He hauled me up the stairs with great difficulty, but in his eagerness, he didn't even care.

"Calm down!" I exclaimed, laughing at his hurt expression.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, dropping his gaze to the floor and shuffling his feet awkwardly.

I giggled at how upset he looked. "Hey, it's okay," I tried to reassure him. "Just slow down."

---

Ian had planned on watching a movie together, but that didn't exactly work out. Mainly because Ian didn't have a DVD player in his room, and the other two had taken over the one downstairs. I didn't really mind; spending time with Ian was a treat in itself. Instead, then, we did the most old fashioned thing you can think of. Well, maybe not the most old fashioned thing you can think of, but anyway... We played monopoly.

It started out well, each of us playing by the rules and waiting our turn, but we gave up on that before long. Cheating sounded more fun that playing properly, so that's exactly what we did. Every time it came round to my turn, Ian would insist that he had a double roll and take both, so as payback, I robbed the bank. Like, literally. I just stuck my hands in the box, or 'bank' as it was, and took as much money as I could when he wasn't looking.

Ian finished up with more property than me, more houses, and far higher tax, but I had more money. He couldn't fathom how I'd managed to hold onto that much, especially when every time I landed on one of his properties - which were pretty much each and every square on the board - I got fleeced.

For future reference, if anyone ever asks you who the king of monopoly is, tell them it's Sean Smith.

---

We fell asleep not much later. I lay my head on his chest, and he wound his arms around me. There were stray pieces of monopoly money strewn all round the bed, but we were too tired to care.

"Night, Ian, " I mumbled, stifling a yawn and stretching out, before snuggling back into him.

He giggled at me. "Night night, Sean," he replied, kissing the top of my head.

I'd say things in my life were going well, but that would be an understatement. Honestly, right now, things in my life were going perfectly.