Give Me Love

I had always been somewhat smart. I mean, I wasn’t stupid, but I wasn’t a genius either. I had common sense and logic, not booksmarts. So, when suddenly Collin stopped hanging out with me and talking to me and Dad, I knew something was up. I confronted him about it but he just said he was tired and didn’t feel like talking anymore. I was hurt, but I let it go, he was a teenaged boy after all.. but then other stuff started to happen.

In a couple of weeks he grew to be almost six feet tall, cut his hair super short, got muscle out of nowhere and ate literally all of the time. He was never home, either at our cousin Jacob’s or some guy named Sam’s. In a month I watched him get antsy and angry but then all of that negative energy passed and he was finally himself again. He was home a little more, but he was still distracted a lot of the time. I didn’t know what to do, Collin wouldn’t talk to me about anything except for myself. How my day was, or whatever.

Then, couple of months later, he got stressed out again. He was always anxious and ready to run out of the door in a second. He was never home again. I tried to let it go, like my dad was, but I just couldn’t. He was my littler brother and he was never home. What if he was doing drugs or something? I didn’t know. So, I did what I thought was a good idea and went over to Jake’s house. When I found it empty I stormed back out only to find Rachel, Jake’s sister and my cousin, pulling out of the driveway.

“Hey, hold on!” I had called out. “Rachel wait!”

She had the window rolled down, it was one of those rare sunny autumn days. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

I jogged up to the window, “I’m looking for Jake and Collin.”

“They’re at Sam’s...” Rachel let her voice trail off, it was like she was hiding something. She flicked a stray strand of sleek dark hair out of her eyes and tried to look at anything but me.

“Is that where you were headed? Is your boyfriend Paul there too?” She nodded slowly without a word. “Take me with you? I’ve got to talk to Jake and see my brother.”

“I don’t know, Kara...” she gave me a sorry look. “Sam doesn’t like strangers at his house.”

I huffed and crossed to the other side of the car, pulling open the door and hopping in. “I won’t be there long, I just have to talk to Jake.”

She sighed and began the drive to Sam’s house in silence. I was expecting a bit of a long drive, but turned out he only lived about ten minutes from the Black house. She pulled into the driveway and put a hand on my arm. “Wait in here? I’ll just send Jacob and Collin out, if they’re in there.”

I gave her a confused look, “You said they were here.” I hopped out of the car before she could lock the doors on me and speed walked to the door, but Rachel got there first and held it shut.

“Just stay out here a couple of minutes, it won’t kill you.” She had a warning tone to her voice.

“What are you hiding?” I gave her a scared and confused look. “Oh my god, they’re doing drugs in here aren’t they? That’s why Collin and Jacob got so big so fast.” I shoved her aside in my panic and yanked open the door, straining it’s hindges. “Collin?!”

I stopped in my tracks as I saw the group of people before me. There were eleven faces looking back at me with wide eyes. One of them was Collin and his showed a bit of anger too. “What are you doing here?” He stood and shouted.

I stood open mouthed and looked at all of the people before me. Seven of the eleven were super toned, shirtless guys in cutoff denim shorts and three were girls wearing raised eyebrows and a mouth looking similar to mine. “Who is she?” One of the guys called out to Collin, his eyebrows drawn together in what looked like a permanently pissed off grimace.

“That’s Kara, my sister,” Collin answered with a sideways glance before slingshotting his eyes back to face mine. “What are you doing here?”

“I-I came looking for you and Jacob, what is all of this.” I motioned to the anxious people sitting and standing around the small dining area.

I saw Collin struggle with his words, something he never did as he answered. “They’re my friends.”

I raised my brows at him, “Friends?” I motioned to the guy that had spoken earlier. “No offence, but he looks like he’s older than me, what are you doing hanging out with people that much older than you?”

I saw one raise his hand with his head bowed, “We’re not all as old as Sam.” He lifted his eyes and met my own as his sentence came to a close.

The edges of my eyes went fuzzy and my head swirled. Everything except for this boy went out of focus for a minute before things went back to normal. I saw that he was breathless and I felt myself struggling for air.

The voice of Sam rang out as he stood, “Oh, Seth you didn’t!”

The boy, Seth, rose and walked over to me, our eyes locked together. He reached his hand out and took mine, “Hi, I’m Seth,” was all he managed to breathe out.
“My sister! Really man?!” Collin shouted.

I shook Seth’s hand, “Kara.” As my voice left my mouth I snapped out of the trance his eyes held me in, released his hand and took a step backward. I searched through my mind to try and remember why I had come to the house, but all I kept finding in my minds eye was the face of Seth. “I’m just gonna go...”