I'm Not Your Protege, Just Your Kid

Zack’s P.O.V

I went downstairs and into the family room after placing Jayden’s bag outside of her door.

“Hey man, how’d it go?” Brian asked from the couch.

“Devon likes his room,” I said.

“What about Jayden?” Gena asked excitedly.

“Not so much,”

“She has to like it. I mean I picked out the nicest pink the store had,” she huffed.

“Apparently it isn’t if she hated it,” Matt commented.

The guys snorted and I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. I chugged down half the bottle by the time I went back into the family room.

“Do you guys think that I should’ve bought them something?” I asked.

“Like what?” Jimmy asked while flipping through the channels on the T.V.

“I don’t know. Should I ask them what they want?”

“Try that but first you have to get them to actually like you,” Brian said.

I scoffed at his remark but knew that he was right.

“Man your kids got you good earlier,” Johnny said.

“Shut up,” I answered and took another sip of my beer.

Jayden’s P.O.V

I felt someone shake me and I opened my eyes to see Devon’s face right in front of mine. I jumped and he started laughing making water from his hair fall onto my face.

“Zack wants to do something with us today so hurry up in the bathroom,” Devon said.

I grabbed my crutches but than decided to put them back. It’s not like I needed them anymore, Devon and I could walk fine without them. I got up from the bed and walked across the hall to my bathroom to get ready.

I came out of my room wearing a pair of loose black jeans with a white wife beater and a gray and black striped jacket. I clutched onto the railing and slowly went down the stairs. I finally got to the bottom and saw everyone sitting on the couches. I plopped myself next to Devon and let out a yawn.

“Why are you dressed like me?” he asked.

My eyes looked at his outfit and I rolled them.

“I think it looks cool,” Johnny said.

We both looked at Johnny and he cleared his throat.

“Don’t you guys ever go home?” I asked.

“Yeah, but there’s nothing to do there,” Brian said.

“How sad,”

Zack came waltzing out of the kitchen stuffing his face with food.

“Ready to go?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Devon and I said.

“Zack, can we come?” Brian asked on our way out.

“Well it was just supposed to be us three,” he said scratching the back of his head.

“Please? We don’t want to go back home,”

“Fine,” he said.

Devon and I rolled our eyes and kept going out the door.

Zack pulled up in front of the mall and we all got out of the SUV.

“Damn it, Devon, hurry the hell up,” I said knowing that it would annoy him.

“Jayden, shut the hell up before I break your other leg,”

“I’d like to see you try you cripple,”

He opened his mouth to say something but I cut him off. Every attempt he made to say something I’d say ‘no’ to piss him off. He finally gave up and stayed quiet.

“Do you guys always fight?” Zack asked.

“I guess you could say that,” I shrugged.

“So I think the first thing we should do is buy you guys phones,” he sad walking into a phone store.

“I don’t want a phone,” I said.

“How come?” he asked stopping in his tracks.

“Because I don’t want to talk to anyone and I don’t want people contacting me,” I said with barely any emotion.

“What if you meet a good looking guy and want his number?” Jimmy asked.

“She won’t be looking for any guys because she’s not allowed to date,” Zack said and glared at Jimmy.

The corners of my mouth twitched at Zack’s protectiveness.

“What about me?” Devon asked.

“You can date,” Zack said.

I knitted my eyebrows in confusion as Devon gave me a smirk.

“Well you won’t have to worry about Devon no girl wants to go within one hundred feet of him. Hell, I’m his twin and I don’t even like to breath the same air as him,” I said.

Zack tried to hold back a laugh and Devon shoved me hard. I lost my balance and fell to the floor. My hand went around his good leg and pulled, making his land right next to me. I crawled on top of him and wrapped my hands around his neck.

“Ow! Get the fuck off of me you whale!” he screamed.

“I am not a whale you fat pile of shit!” I yelled and making people look at our group.

“Kids these days,” some old lady said who had badly tanned skin and very obvious Botox in her face.

“Oh go knit a sweater you bag of wrinkled skin,” I said.

She huffed and walked off. Devon pushed me off and I fell to the floor with a thud. He got up and stuck his hand out for me. I grabbed it and he helped me up. I dusted myself off and looked at Devon who was staring back at me. He stuck out his bottom lip and we hugged each other.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Me too,”

The guys gave us weird looks and waited for us to finish being emotionally unstable.

“Dude, you stink,” I said once we let go.

“You are such an ass,” he said.

I gave him a cheesy smile and I turned towards Zack with a glare.

“What?” he timidly asked.

“Why can’t I fucking date? Even though I don’t want a boyfriend how come I can’t have a boyfriend?” I asked.

“Because I don’t trust the guys out here,” he answered.

“You mean guys like you when you were their age?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yeah, I mean no,” he said with a shake of his head.

“Yes, you’re just paranoid that I’ll turn out pregnant at sixteen like mom did,” I said.

Without another word to him I sat down on a bench in front of the phone store. A second later Devon sat beside me and didn’t say a word.

“They went into the store to buy us phones,” he said.

“Oh joy, now he’s going to call me every minute when I go out,” I said.

“I know, but just let him have his fun. It’s not like he regularly get two sixteen year old kids on his doorstep claiming to be his,”

I brushed Devon off and wished that I was home in Detroit. Back in Detroit was my life where I established a name for myself in school and around my old community. Back in Detroit is where Devon and I left our mother who I wished didn’t give us up at three years old.