Shameless

The next thing I knew I was standing in the bright pink room I used to sleep in whenever I’d stayed over here, a few boxes piled up against the walls, the others being carried in by the boys.
“Can we please paint this damn room?” I called back towards my mom.
She came skittering in, her arms folded across her chest. “Now what’s wrong with it? It’s a very lovely color.”
“It’s a little bright…” Alex pitched in as he dropped a box at my feet.
Our mother simply scoffed and walked away as Alex wrapped his arm around me neck and dug his knuckles into my head.
“I missed my baby sister!”
After a short second I wrestled out of his grasp and has him locked in my grip, and smiled. “I’m only an hour or so younger.”
We began a sort-of play fighting, struggling with each other to pin the other down, it’s what we did. For siblings, we got along quite well. His ‘musketeers’ even came in and became our audience for a brief moment before I had Alex on his back, his breath heavy as we laughed.
“So, you going to show me around good ol’ Baltimore, or do I get to stay home for the next week by myself?” I asked, smiling and letting him stand up on his own.
He brushed himself off and shrugged his shoulders, of course he wasn’t going to go out of his way to help me settle in, that’s just Alex.
“Come on Alex, if you don’t show her around, you know I will!” The lanky kid winked at me and my brother returned his remark with a punch in the shoulder.
I began digging though one of the boxes, looking for my soccer ball.
“Am I the only one here who plays sports?” I asked out loud while I shuffled through several soccer medals to get to the ball at the bottom.
“I do.” I heard Zack’s voice drift up just as I pulled it out of the box.

***

We all stretched out across a yellowing field, me and Alex on one side, the other three spread out across the other.
“You better not let them win!” Alex said as he stood in the goalpost.
“Don’t worry about me, just don’t let ‘em score!”
Rian was perched in the goal on the other side, and I gave him a threatening glare. This was my sport. Three against two, fine, but there’s no way these guys could beat me. I yelled out, signalling the start of the game, and took off, heading for the ball in center-field. I was being chased down by a skinny guy and a hunk, and I still managed to score a goal in the first minute.
I glanced back to see Zack with his hands on his hips and a confused look on his face, and Jack jumping up and down yelling curse words in complaint.
“Can I be on your team?” He yelled toward Alex who began laughing.
“Team Gaskarth kicks your ass!” He replied.
I ran toward my twin and tackled him to the ground. I loved the sound of ‘Team Gaskarth’. We sat in the dirt of the goalpost laughing.
“We need to make jerseys for that.” I smiled, slapping my brother on the back.
“Hell yeah we do.”