Chapter 3: FROM BAD TO WORSE.
Alex’s pov:
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When I pulled up in front of my house, I saw my father sitting on the steps of our front porch, still wearing his business suit, trying to keep himself occupied and somewhat entertained with his phone. I sighed, seriously? The doghouse?
Not again.
I hopped out of the car and made my way over to him.
My dad was anything but a typical middle-aged businessman, he’s a few inches taller than me and sports a lightly trimmed beard. Despite his tough exterior, he is soft at heart, he looks a lot younger than his age because mom takes care of his health, but mostly because he behaves like a kid.
When he spotted me he raised an eyebrow at my messed up clothes and assumed “Partied a little too hard did we?”
As I walked closer he held up his hand for a high-five while a wide grin settled on his face, I rolled my eyes at him before obliging and then corrected his assumption “FYI, Dad I was out for job hunting.”
“So… I take it you’ve been hired as a janitor,” he said laughingly.
I gave him the ‘not amused’ look and said sarcastically “love how much faith you have in me.”
“Always,” he played along.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
He looked around dramatically, “I live here?” his reply sounded like a question.
“On the front porch?” I deadpanned.
He frowned exaggeratedly “I’m afraid so…”
“What, why?” was my cleverly analysed response.
“Just your mom wouldn’t let me come in” he complained. “I’ve been banished from entering my own chambers.”
“For good reason, I believe” I crossed my arms, knowing his track record well enough. “But why? What blunder was it this time?”
“I came back from a party and I guess I’m a little late,” he said while lightly scratching the back of his head.
If I remember correctly he was supposed to return last night. I checked my wristwatch and noted that it was now around 3:30 in the afternoon. I gave my dad a pointed look and incredulously asked: “You think?!”
“I fell asleep after the party, and woke up late and hungover.” Yeah, that was his reason. I know, it sucks.
Well, it’s better late than never.
I shook my head and muttered, “What would you do without me?”
I pulled out my keys and unlocked the door. Dad doesn’t have one cause well, mom obviously confiscated it and if she saw me helping him, I would be homeless too. I looked out at the front yard…the lawn looks comfortable enough, just in case I need backup.
Dad and I turned to each other with a finger placed on our lips ‘silence’.
I pushed the door open and we entered quietly on our tiptoes. I waved at my dad and we both started speed-walking towards our own rooms.
“Alex! Rick!” A voice booms through the silence like an explosion. Mom stood there staring at the two of us, while we were not sure what to do. “Both of you stop right now!” she yelled, halting us both in our spots.
Busted.
Oh, oh! Shit! We did not think this through, dad and I exchanged looks of anxiety clearly at a loss as to what should be done until dad decided to throw me under the bus.
“It was her idea.” He said, claiming to be an innocent puppy.
The look I directed towards him was one of disbelief. “Thanks, dad.”
Just when she was about to start lecturing us for being equal parts immature and stupid, my big brother Kyle walked in shouting “Mom! Will you do my tie please?” He practically shoved a black-striped tie into mom’s hands and she took it, momentarily forgetting about me and dad. “Aww you look so handsome” Mom gushed and he smiled. My brother was such a mama-boy.
Kyle was all dressed up in a black suit as tonight he was going to appear in a celebrity talk show or something of that sort. I don’t really know what everyone sees in him but apparently, he’s a Hollywood superstar.
Kyle had perfectly styled his dirty-blonde hair up, he has bright hazel eyes, straight nose and a jaw that could cut diamonds, he was quite tall too and his broad shoulders filled out his suit well. We looked nothing alike, I was average at best with dull features where nothing stood out except my honey-brown eyes.
“And where is my laptop?” He asked her and then gestured discreetly at me and dad to make our escape when mom wasn’t looking.
I shot him a ‘thumbs-up’ for his amazing distraction skills before I got the hell out of there and into the safe confines of my room.
Phew. Crisis averted.
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It’s been three days of peaceful mornings in this house, but asking for a fourth one was clearly too much.
Anyone who knows me knows how much I detest mornings, and seven in the morning was just stretching it too thin. I woke up to loud noises which sounded a lot like screaming.
Grumpily I complained loudly to my ceiling. “Kyle, please control your army of fan-girls!”
“Shut up Alex!” Kyle yelled at me irritated, his voice was distant but loud enough. Wow, someone sure rolled out of the wrong side of their bed, or maybe instead he fell out and knocked his head. No one would be surprised.
I pushed myself out of my comfortable bed and dragged my limbs out of my room to go investigate the cause of that annoying noise pollution.
Not because I was curious, just because I wanted to smack some sense into their skulls which were clearly lacking in the brain cells department.
Soon I was walking towards our kitchen as I realised that’s where the noises originated from. I stopped in my tracks in the doorway and gaped in disbelief at the scene unfolding in front of my eyes. Assuming that I was probably hallucinating, I just silently watched whatever was going on.
Kyle was in an unbreakable headlock between Sam’s muscular arms, while Kate was trying her best to get his phone from his grip but my brother held on as if his life depended on it even though his face was turning blue.
Sam is Kyle’s best friend and mom and dad have almost also adopted him as a third child, that way he’s by extension like a brother to me. He and Kyle were both a package deal, always together in every mishap, although this time it seemed they are against each other.
“Let go of me!” Kyle screamed. “This is abuse. You guys are bullies!”
“Let go of the phone,” Kate yelled.
“But it’s my phone.” Kyle defended.
Nope. Not hallucinating. This stupidity is real.
“You’ll get it back after we see who you were texting all smiley-faced and googly eyes.” Sam said, somehow managing to sound threatening even after he said the words ‘googly eyes’.
“Urgh….stop it you mean people. I told you it was nothing!” My brother was definitely not winning with these two.
“You’re clearly lying!” Kate tried tickling him which resulted in him losing his grip on the phone and Kate snatched it up in an instant.
She tried going through the device only to frown in disappointment. “It’s locked.” She said to Sam.
“Try 2693.” He told her.
“I did. He probably changed it.” She turned to glare at a smirking Kyle and she threw the phone at his face angrily, he barely caught it before it could hit him.
“Don’t hurt my face, I’m an actor!” Kyle frowned.
“What’s going on?” I asked, unable to make sense of the situation in my half-asleep state.
“Alex!” someone screamed noticing my presence there and instantly I was being held in a hug which was making me wanna pass out.
According to my knowledge, only one person was capable of making my insides ache, and that was my best friend. “Hi, Kate” I was clearly confused. “What are you doing here?” How my klutz self remained standing through this all was beyond me.
After swaying me from side to side, she pulled away from the embrace “What? I can’t just drop by cause I missed you?”
“Not this early, you can’t.”
She pouted and then gleefully announced, “My Boss is out of the city for a week, which means I get a few days off, starting today!”
“Yay,” I said, completely lacking any form of enthusiasm. Kate didn’t take it personally, she knew expecting any form of excitement from me at this time in the morning was a snowball’s chance in hell.
“Kyle seriously, who is it?” Sam asked, but he remained silent.
“Can someone tell me what’s going on?” I said, exasperated.
“Kyle likes someone and he wouldn’t tell us who,” Kate explained. “He didn’t even try to flirt with me today. Not once.” That hardly sounded like a complaint, but whatever.
Kyle rolled his eyes at my friend’s random observation.
“Is it a guy? Are you still in the closet? You can tell us, Kyle, you know we won’t judge.” Sam said, blowing all our minds.
Kyle’s eyes widened “I’m not gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m not into guys.”
“Yeah, I guess not, or else you would have fallen in love with me,” Sam said like there was no other alternative, as he nodded to himself, not really seeing the baffled what-the-effing-hell look his best friend was aiming at him.
“Stop inflating your own ego Sam, and get to work.” Kate yelled and then turned to me “Come on, we’re making breakfast!” I glanced down at the kitchen counter to see my brother and Sam standing around, doing nothing.
I sighed giving in, “Okay… I’ll join you in a minute.” She nodded and proceeded towards the kitchen counter and started instructing them and I went back to my room to freshen up and officially start my day.
After jumping in the shower I felt a thousand times better. My routine didn’t take me very long and after drying my hair and pulling it on top of my head in a messy bun, I walked back to the kitchen, the scene that awaited me was completely different this time.
“That looks like tar,” Sam said, as Kyle stirred something in a pot with a spoon.
“No, it doesn’t. Shut up.” Kyle frowned defensively, sounding grumpy. “Black coffee is supposed to look like this.’
“I’m not cleaning that up,” Kate stated, as she backed away from broken shards of porcelain that existed silently, and the cause of which was unknown to me.
My dad soon entered with a frown etched across his face, clearly, even he didn’t like all this noise so early in the morning. “What are you all doing in here?” He then turned to Kyle, “you know how mad your mom gets if something breaks.”
“Don’t you mean ‘when’?” Kate interjected pointing at the damage on the kitchen floor.
“Oh no.”
Guess my day just got more interesting.
Oh, Joy!
After a whole lot of mess, endless whisking and blending our breakfast was finally ready. I had to do most of the work since the boys were useless and they devoured the food as soon as it was edible in any way shape or form, I was getting tired of swatting their hands away with a wooden spatula as they tried to eat the raw pancake batter.
I saved some for mom and dad and grabbed the bottle of hazelnut syrup for our fluffy looking pancakes.
Kyle and Sam helped me carry them to the living room ignoring the mahogany dining table, leaving it looking at all kinds of rejected and dejected.
We settled in a semicircular curve on the couch facing the television and there was a debate about what to watch. Sam wasn’t very picky, Kyle was okay with anything as long as we don’t watch one of his movies or shows, and Kate wanted to watch a romantic comedy. I wasn’t in the mood for it and I blamed Hollywood wholeheartedly.
“Why do you always complain about the industry?” Sam asked, probably feeling a little defensive.
“Well… they portray romance unrealistically, every story has the same clichèd setting, they take all my favourite books and turn them into below-average movie adaptations, all the characters are perfect and flawless and unbelievable! Need I go on…”
“Not all of them are like that….” Kyle frowned.
“Yeah okay, there are exceptions, which is why I haven’t given up on it,” I told him, and then stuffed my face with the goodness of pancakes. “I’m still holding out hope… “
We ended up watching a sitcom as we ate and drank coffee.
The show was interrupted by a commercial but no one was annoyed as the ad was featuring my big brother Kyle. He always stops us from watching his movies with his constant whining, but he can never predict this.
Sam apparently was already informed about what was to come, and so he laughed and said, “You guys have to see this!” Kate and I paid close attention to the advert.
We watched as the on-screen Kyle walked around in his black suit with carefully crafted soundless steps, he was clearly a spy judging from his alert eyes and blank expressions and the fact that he was clutching a handgun in his fingers.
“Three hostiles spotted in the left-wing.” His voice was no louder than it needed to be, as he spoke into the microphone attached to his earpiece. His movements were agile and swift as he moved around inside a dim-lit building, he suddenly stopped at a corner as shots were fired and he crouched down and rolled forward to cross a corridor for no apparent reason. He rose to his full height, braced himself against the wall and peeked around the corner to check the coast.
Big mistake because in the next moment someone crept up behind him aiming a shiny grey pistol straight to his head.
“Gotcha.” His foe said a vicious smile played on her red lips that went well with her sexy wine red dress with a slit up her leg.
He was forced to raise both his hands in surrender, as his assailant said in a cool voice “Any last words?” and then the screen went black, now showing a beautiful bottle of cologne and the tagline said ‘be careful with it.’
We all howled with laughter while Kyle glared at all of us.
“Did you die? Did she kill you? Tell us, what happened?!” Sam exclaimed, his sarcasm wasn’t helping in the slightest and I was once again rolling around in glee, unable to stop grinning even after the laughter stopped.
“Trust Kyle to get busted just because of his amazing taste in cologne,” Kate remarked, pointing out how stupid the concept of that advert was.
We laughed and teased Kyle some more, while he sulkily defended his work in vain.
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This Chapter is dedicated to Crazygirl_3105 for all the lovely comments! You absolutely made my day, I loved reading your comments about all the characters and they motivate me to write more quirky characters…keep them coming, I’d love to know your thoughts with the progression of the story.
Please you guys… vote and comment if you like the story.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Thanks for reading
-Vinee
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