Hutch or Peck?

“What does she have to be angry about?” Josh asked after Sam left the room.

“She’s angry about the performance our mom is putting on because you’re here,” I answered with a sigh.

“Performance?” he asked raising a brow.

I nodded before explaining.

“Basically, our mom yells at us all of the time. For example, last night when we came home late, she didn’t let us explain nor have an opinion for that matter and that alone made Sam mad.”

“I see. That’s never good,” he responded as I shook my head.

“No, it’s not. I have a feeling one of these days those two are going to get into it and I don’t want to be here when that happens,” I admitted causing an odd feeling to fill me.

Naturally, Hutch asked the question I expected him to after I made my confession.

“Why not?” he asked as his eyes wandered towards the stairs.

My eyes followed his gaze, but didn’t see anything. I shrugged the matter away and instead answered him feeling as though I needed to explain instead of keeping my silence like I would with any other guy except Peck.

“My mom has issues. Sam has always tried being the mediator with solving her problems for her, but ever since we got into this industry, things changed. Sam started drifting away from her as my mom began picking up the alcohol,” I said easily, but the subject was very touchy with me.

Hutch didn’t speak and instead just listened so I continued.

“When we were kids after our dad died, she used to drink only a glass a week. Then, it increased to half a bottle in a week to finally a bottle a day, but it’s only that bad when she’s mad at us and I mean worried mad,” I concluded now feeling self-conscious.

“Does she ever hit you? Or Sam?” Hutch asked catching me off guard.

“No, never! I’m just afraid that Sam won’t be able to take it anymore and might leave. She’s talked about it before,” I answered.

“But she’d never leave you, Mel. She’s your twin,” he assured staring at me with a small smile.

Somehow, I believed his words although he barely knew me. My mind raced as I realized that Hutch knew something Peck didn’t; he knew my true feelings about my mom’s drinking and the affect it could have on me and my sister.

“As true as that is,” Sam’s voice said in the hallway, “it depends on what Mel wants to do with her life,” she said in a cold tone.

Her eyes stared straight at Hutch and then at me, but I didn’t know why.

“Are you mad at me or something?” I asked my heart racing as I realized Sam must have overheard the conversation.

“No, I’m not. Can we not talk about her drinking? And you,” she said pointing to Hutch, “no one in the industry knows about our mom drinking so don’t go running your mouth to anyone about it, got it?” she threatened.

Hutch laughed as he didn’t have fear in his eyes.

“No worries. It’ll never be spoken of except to your sister,” he promised causing me to stare at him in wonder.

What would make him say that? I thought and judging by the softening of Sam’s face, I could tell she was analyzing him already.

“OK, well, Mel and I are gonna do our daily walk. We’ll be done in about half an hour,” she said grabbing me by the arm.

I stammered in protest, but no words got out and as I looked back at Hutch, all he did was shrug his shoulders and began doing my dishes.

My attention went back to my twin once we reached the top step.

“What’s your problem?” I asked pulling out of her slack grip.

“What’s your problem?” she asked with an attitude.

“I asked you first, so answer,” I said folding my arms across my chest.

“What is with you when it comes down to Josh?” she asked simply.

My demeanor changed entirely as I felt my walls go up for the first time with my sister.

“I don’t know,” I got out honestly.

She raised a brow before giving me a hard look.

“Don’t let your guard down with him. You barely know the guy,” she got out before walking away, but I was pissed.

“You mean like how you do with Sean?” I asked knowing I hit a nerve.

Unexpectedly, she turned around and walked back to me.

“What did you say?” she asked her anger beginning to get the better of her, but her tone was calm.

“You heard me. You let your guard down with almost every guy you’ve met and when I want to do the same for the first time with someone other than Peck, it’s wrong? How is that fair?” I asked folding my arms as I gave her a hard look.

“No, I don’t. And as for Sean, you know we’re not a couple or anything,” she responded.

“Yeah, I know that because you’re so afraid ever since things ended with Noel even though Sean isn’t him,” I blurted, my mouth dropping open the words came out.

“So this is turn on your sister day. Man, I wondered when it was going to happen,” she got out sarcastically and turned to walk to her room, but I ran to her, grabbing her left arm.

“Sammie, I didn’t mean-,” I began, but she cut across me.

“Don’t touch me. I don’t wanna talk right now,” she said as though she were pissed off, but kept her volume audible so that no one could hear her besides me.

I dropped her arm and watched as she went into her room, slamming the door behind her without looking back at me. I closed my eyes as a long exhale escaped me before heading to my room and got ready for our walk.

~~~~~

We came down the steps, our eyes landing on our mom and she spoke in a bored tone.

“He left. Said he’d be back in a half hour,” she said avoiding our eyes.

Sam didn’t speak and instead walked to the door. After about ten minutes of walking, I broke the silence.

“Are we really not going to talk because of what was said?” I asked incredulously my eyes scanning the area around us just in case there were any paparazzi around.

“For your information, I wasn’t talking to you because you insulted me about Sean and for mentioning that bastard,” she hissed as her pace sped up.

I sighed in an annoyed tone and sped up my pace as well.

“I’m sorry for mentioning Noel, but about the other stuff, you know I was right,” I got out as she slowed down.

“I’m not going to say you were right, Melanie. You were still wrong for saying that,” she retorted, but in a calm manner.

Another sigh escaped me before I spoke once more.

“Why won’t you just say what you’re feeling?” I asked turning her around to face me.

She avoided my eyes behind her sunglasses and although the day was beautiful, I had a feeling it wasn’t going to lighten the mood between us. Sam opened her mouth to speak just as her phone rung. An annoyed sigh escaped her before she answered it.

“Yeah? OK. We’ll be there. Bye,” she said before hanging up and then turned her attention back to me.

“We have to head home. I have to record some songs and you have to get to that photo shoot,” she got out as though she didn’t want to speak her mind.

I bit my lip before speaking for the last time.

“Fine, but you have to tell me what you were going to say later, alright?” I asked.

My sister didn’t speak nor make any body language that acknowledged if she agreed to my request so I took off in anger walking back home pissed at her for the second time in my life.