Chapter Eleven
Kalen
The brain cells throwing a rave in my head need to chill the fuck out.
Last night I decided to take Amelie and leave the tension behind.
Sawyer was acting strange, not that he will tell me what’s going on, that’s just how he’s wired: family orientated, but private as fuck.
He never opens up to anyone. The last few days he seemed happier and I was hopeful that he might finally have found a girl, or got laid at least, but last night he was like a bear with a sore head.
The twins are battling their hatred for our new sister, and also guilt over taking their prank too far. If I’m honest, I felt guilty by association, so I wanted to make it up to her and give her a birthday she would never forget.
The drinks went down like water and we danced the night away.
Somehow, at the end of the night - or early hours of the morning, however you choose to look at it - we took a taxi back to school.
I made sure she got back to her room safely.
Even behaved like a perfect gentleman. More or less.
I mean, come on, she was dressed like sex on legs!
A swift boot to the ribs quickly wakes me from my incoherent state. I remember the key not working and laying on the floor to rest my head.
“What the fuck?” I shout, instinctively cradling my ribs but wishing I could hold my pounding head at the same time. Fuck. Why did I yell? What the fuck did we drink last night?
“Get up,” Slate demands, leaning down to snatch the key from my hands. He opens the door and I fall inside, army crawling my way to the centre of the room. I’m not even bothering to try and stand yet.
“Classes start in ten minutes. You missed breakfast,” Onyx adds in his damn monotone voice.
No matter how many therapists dad sends him to, he still doesn't have a range of tones. If you don’t know him, you would think he is in a constant state of pissed off.
Which, he pretty much is, come to think of it.
“Just leave me, save yourselves,” I joke.
“Get up! Sawyer and Dad are livid that you took off last night, Laura was beside herself.”
“Ugh,” I groan. “Lets not pretend that woman gives a shit for one second! How long have her and Dad been screwing and not once did she mention kids!”
“We don’t give a shit about her, or her kids, we want her gone. She doesn’t belong here and you know it. We have to make her see that, Dad thinks she’s a perfect fit. It’s a joke,” Onyx spits, his anger taking over.
“Can we not talk about anything heavy right now? My brain cells are throwing a pity party for the ones I lost last night.” I use all my strength to pull myself off the floor, and Slate throws my uniform at me, Onyx picks up a can of Lynx and starts spraying it in my direction. Asshole.
Within two minutes we are set to leave, them with their pissed attitudes and me still tipsy. I make sure to snatch my sunglasses off my desk and pull up my tie.
The twins ditch me; my form room is in a different building than theirs. When I enter, I see Amelie is already in class, her head resting against the desk.
“I got you a present,” I say holding out a cup of coffee. I made the twins stop to at least let me get coffee.
“Thanks. I might need at least ten of these before the day is out.”
“Was worth it. Wanna ditch and find somewhere to sleep?” I whisper.
“I can’t. I have to face your dad to get my punishment for skipping detention straight after this class.”
“I forgot about that,” I laugh. He will go hard on her to show her he is serious about the rules. “I’m sorry.”
“Good morning class!” The form teacher beams. Oh God my ear drums have been smashed against my skull. Why does everyone feel the need to be so loud?
“Kalen, please remove the sunglasses, or I will have to give you a warning.”
“Start writing them out, if I take them off, my eyeballs will bleed.” The class laughs and I cover my ears.
Dad is going to lose his shit, and I will lose my privileges.
Although, given that I only use them to talk to girls, it is probably best if I have them taken away.
Amelie’s the only girl I want to talk to now anyway.
A knock at the door distracts the teacher and gives me a much needed chance for my ears to recover. Amelie elbows me and nods to the door. Sawyer is standing there.
“Kalen, Mr Knox needs to see you outside. You too, Amelie.”
We both stand slowly and make our way outside. I don’t miss the way Sawyer looks at Amelie, I just can’t quite interpret it. I will ask him about that later.
“Amelie, my father would like to see you in his office. I will see you tonight, at six PM sharp in the gym. Wear appropriate clothing this time.” Sawyer has a no nonsense tone. Amelie shocks me by pulling me into a hug.
“Thanks for last night,” she says. “I really enjoyed myself.”
“Me too, going all night is my specialty,” I say back and she heads off to see my dad.
“Get a move on, Kalen,” Sawyer snaps. Wow, someone really pissed in his cornflakes today. Whoever he fucked at the weekend must have done a real number on him for him to be this grouchy.
We walk the rest of the way to his office in silence, and when we get there the twins are already waiting. Each of us takes a seat, all three of them look at me.
“What?” I ask.
“Did you fuck her?” Onyx demands. Why do they care?
“What does it matter?” I add, crossing my arms over my chest. “Someone needs to fill me in, because I’m lost.”
“It matters because she is up to something. I have to show you all something, but you have to promise not to tell Dad.” Sawyer is never this serious, and he doesn’t keep much from Dad.
He slides his phone across his desk and the twins and I lean in. Slate taps the phone and an image of Amelie and Sawyer lights up the screen. They’re in his bed, I recognise the pillows mum insisted he needed. She’s clearly topless, at least. Him too.
“I hate to break it to you bro, but that looks an awful lot like our new sister, in your bed.” Fuck. What else can I say?
“Now I’ll ask again, Kalen, did you fuck her?” I’m surprised the twins have said nothing.
“Did you?” I counter. Sawyer just glares at me until I cave. I sigh. “Nope, maybe some groping but that’s about all...that I can remember. I actually like her, so if this is some kind of ploy to turn me against her, it won’t work.”
“Not even if she tried to seduce me, and use it to blackmail me?” Sawyer asks.
“Can you blame her? But what would she gain from blackmailing you, really? If you figure that out, then you might change my mind. But if you ask me, she probably wanted to fuck with one of us to piss off her mother, because if you haven’t noticed, they really do not get along.
And after what the twins did to her, it really doesn’t surprise me that she would be out for blood. ”
“What did you actually do to her?” Sawyer says, turning to my brothers.
“Who cares what we did? She needs to go, and by the looks of it, you two are trying to shack up with her and shag her, which leaves Slate and I to do the dirty work.”
“Don’t try and justify what you did, you found a picture of her being gang raped and spread it around the school, making out like she was a whore. Maybe someone normal would have broken down and run away, but Amelie doesn’t strike me as the type to run at the first sign of trouble.
“If you three want her gone, get to know her, that will be the only way to find her weakness and exploit it… but I do not want any part of it. I kinda like having a sister. So you can all sod off and tell dad I am leaving to sleep off this dreaded hangover, and if you don’t, I will tell him what you have all done.
” I stand and leave the room. My anger has boiled over.
Those three always stand together, and poor old Kalen is just supposed to follow along.
Maybe when I was a kid, I wanted to follow in my brother's footsteps, but not now.
If I’m being honest with myself, I may be a little jealous.
Seeing her in his arms burned. I thought we had a connection and that look I saw him give her earlier when he took us out of class, that was a look of longing.
Now I know why. He slept with her. How fucked is it; my parents helped the twins and Sawyer, by adopting them and I am still sorting through the mess in my head about that.
I know I should be happy that my brothers have a loving family, yet my father shows me less love, always taking their side on everything.
At least I have my mum. I know I’m her favourite.
After her and my dad split, my brothers only really visit her once a week for dinner. I see her everyday.
Screw them all, I’m going to make sure Amelie realises I’m the better choice. If she thinks I laid it on thick before, she has no idea what she is in for tomorrow.