Four
Eli
I t did not take long to arrive at my house.
I had to admit, that ride was pretty cool. I had only dreamed of riding a motorcycle and it was way more fun than I imagined it to be. Though, as fun as it was, I had been holding on for dear life.
"Uh, Elias?"
Javier's voice broke me out of my thoughts. "Yeah?"
"You can let go now," he said, and I could hear him trying to stifle a laugh.
I quickly let go of him and hopped off the bike. Meanwhile, Javier fell into laughter with that same stupid smile that showed his dimples. Even at night I could see them.
I shook my head as I took off the helmet. I then silently handed it to Javier.
"This is your house, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah. I'm surprised you remember it."
Javier had been to my house once before.
Three years ago–our freshman year–Javier and I were assigned a project together.
We ended up working on it at my house despite my protests because at the time his house was being renovated.
Luckily, my aunt was away on a cruise that week and my siblings wanted to be anywhere that wasn't near me. So, we had the house to ourselves.
It was one of the most stressful assignments that I, to this day, had ever had and it was solely because of my partner.
It was our first time having a real conversation and working together, but his need for control was too much for me to tolerate.
He also had the same overly confident attitude, and it was off putting.
Thinking back on it, that was probably the beginning of our rivalry.
That project only solidified my beliefs of Javier. Javier Cortez was a cocky, self-absorbed, narcissistic, controlling, cute, pretentious asshole.
"I have a good memory," he smirked.
An awkward silence filled the air between us. There was nothing but the sound of the cars passing by on the road and those annoying bugs that make noise during the night. I did not know the name of them, but I knew how much I disliked them.
"Well," I finally broke the silence. "I've gotta go."
Javier nodded once as he put his helmet on. He didn't say anything as he adjusted himself on the bike. “See you tomorrow, Baby Richardson.”
He winked at me, and I couldn’t help the roll of my eyes. Then he drove off with a small wave, leaving me standing in the driveway.
"Thanks," I mumbled when he was already out of earshot. "For caring."
With a heavy sigh, I unlocked my front door.
I was grateful to finally be back because all that was on my mind was how badly I needed a shower and sleep.
However, my gratefulness was overshadowed by irritation the moment I saw my siblings chilling on the couch without a care in the goddamn world.
Like they did not leave me for hours with the false hope that they were coming back for me.
I stood in front of both of them so that they could see the pure anger on my face. "What the hell?"
Emerson continued texting on her phone and pretending like I was not fuming at the sight of her. Easton was spread out across the couch, staring at the ceiling.
"Don't ignore me." I gritted my teeth.
Emerson glanced at me. "What crawled up your ass and died?"
Honestly, I shouldn't have been surprised by their lack of a reaction. They did shitty things to me often and then acted as if I was being unreasonable for being upset.
"Why would you tell me that you were coming back and then not come back?" I asked. "That was unnecessarily mean."
Neither of them responded. I huffed, fighting back the tears that I felt creeping up. Now was not the time to cry, especially not in front of them. It was the time to give the twins a piece of my mind and let them know how fucked up that was.
"Easton, are you even listening?" I yelled, my fists clenched tight by my side.
"You know he's not," Emerson mumbled.
I quickly realized what she meant. I then groaned and threw my hands over my face in frustration. "Why are you always high?"
Easton finally opened his eyes, barely. He looked at me, and when he did, my irritation grew. His eyes were red and barely even open. He clearly hadn't been listening at all, he probably just realized I was there.
"Instead of picking your brother up from school you two decided smoking was the better option. I almost had to walk the whole way home," I yelled.
"I haven't smoked," Emerson said simply.
Easton scoffed. "I don't need a lecture from an alcoholic."
That felt like a slap in the face. It wasn't true, I was not an alcoholic. I drank sometimes before bed, but it wasn’t detrimental.
It helped me sleep at night. Neither Emerson nor Easton had ever mentioned my night drinking before, so I had thought they never noticed.
I was wrong. They noticed, they just never bothered to say anything.
"I'm not an alcoholic you prick," I seethed.
"Yeah," Emerson laughed. Apparently this conversation was funny to her. "And I am the smartest person in our school."
"Fuck both of you! You guys have always been assholes to me, but this is lower than I thought you would go," I yelled as I dug my fingernails into my arm, trying my hardest to stay somewhat calm.
Emerson stuck her hand out and touched her thumb to the rest of her fingers continuously to make her hand look like a mouth opening and closing. She was mocking me, trying to say that I was talking too much.
That was when I heard the bathroom door creak open. I jumped when I realized who had been listening the entire time.
Standing there with his long auburn hair and tattooed arms was Benji, my brother's best friend and my sister's boyfriend. I lowkey had a thing for him, but it wasn’t anything more than a typical younger sibling crush on their older siblings’ friends.
"Uh, hey Eli," Benji greeted with a small smile as he made his way to the couch and sat in between Emerson and Easton. Benji was used to the fights that my siblings and I had, but that never made it less awkward for him to be present during them.
"Hey," I mumbled. I was so angry at Easton and Emerson that I was not interested in talking to Benji.
Benji nodded. "Do you want to hang with us?"
"No, he does not," Emerson was quick to cut into the conversation. She glared at Benji, her look encouraging him to shut.
Benji had only been dating Emerson for a few months, but he had been friends with Easton for years. He knew about the stressful relationship I had with my siblings, so he always made sure to be kind to me.
Lately, though, he had been more persistent about being around me. He would start conversations with me, ask me if I was alright when he could see I was upset, and would even talk to me at school anytime he saw me. It was unusual, but I didn’t dwell on it.
"Are you spending the night?" I asked Benji.
He nodded. Because of the tense atmosphere that was always in our home, Benji did not stay over often.
When he did, he would have to sleep on our bedroom floor.
Our aunt would not allow him to share the bed with Emerson.
Not because Aunt Macy cared, but because she liked control. Luckily, Benji did not mind the floor.
"Run along now, Elias," Easton mumbled as he flicked his hand toward me. He didn’t need to tell me twice.
I spent the rest of that night cursing my siblings' names and studying. I eventually fell asleep, but not before I had a couple of shots.
***
"Please do not drop them," I pleaded to my friends as we carried the boxes filled with donuts inside of the school.
"Don't you mean donut drop them?" Ricky asked playfully. I cringed at the awful joke.
Kailey sighed, looking tired from carrying the boxes from the parking lot all the way to the cafeteria of our school. "Sometimes I wonder why you're my boyfriend."
Bella scoffed. “I've been asking you that forever."
We continued walking through the building.
It was a far walk, and holding five donut boxes stacked on top of each other did not make it any easier.
When we finally made it to the cafeteria, we put the boxes on the table and began to sort them.
We had two glaze, three chocolate, two blueberry, and one sprinkle. There was a dozen in each box.
After sorting through the donuts, I turned to my friends with a smile. "Guys, I really couldn't have done this without you all. I promise I will pay you all back as soon as I get the money."
I had no clue how I was going to pay them back. I could have used the money Easton would give me, but that money usually did not last very long.
No, my friends bought those donuts for me so that I could have a better chance at winning this election. It would make me a terrible friend to choose alcohol over my friends. I was going to pay them back.
"No rush," Bella said softly.
Ricky wrapped his arm around his girlfriend. "Yeah, Eli. We've got you covered."
I mumbled a 'thank you' once again. Quickly, students began flooding our donut-filled table.
They were acting like animals, trampling over each other and yelling.
I wasn't surprised, our school was filled with kids who didn't know how to act. Not that I could blame them, who wouldn’t go crazy for free donuts?
We handed out each donut accompanied by a little slip of paper that read, 'Vote for Eli' on it.
I watched as some people read the slip and then threw it on the ground.
Others didn't even take the time to read it and instead just threw it away.
I tried not to let it bother me because there were some people who did acknowledge it.
I noticed some of the lunch ladies side-eyeing us. Whatever, Linda. It was not our fault that the food you served tasted like shit.
Sooner rather than later we ran out of donuts while there were still at least thirty students standing in front of us. Ricky shrugged at the crowd. "We're all out guys, sorry."