Goosebumps and Changing The Narrative

My brother is driving me home yet again. Great. Although, this might be more entertaining than the last drive we had together.

Apparently, Raiden has a girlfriend. Yeah, Skyler. She volunteered to help them find me because she is Josh's neighbor. Super sweet of her. But it doesn't take an army to find me. It just took one person.

I am in the back—sitting between Dean and Lukah. Just when the night couldn't get better. I'm closer to Dean, though, because I'm beyond mad at Lukah. So, I don't even want the fabric of my clothes to grace his black jeans. Whereas I don't mind with Dean, because he doesn't give me this tingly sensation when our arms accidentally brush.

Dean shifts in his place, feeling uncomfortable since as I said, I'm almost flushed against him. And I reek of vomit—there's no denying that.

"Sorry, I just- I need some space from your brother, " I whisper to him by way of explanation. I smile tightly, looking down quickly. They are so similar that it creeps me out. I slide closer to the middle, considering that is better to keep an equal distance from both of them.

Red lighting dims the car and Raiden comes to a sudden stop. My body jerks forward and I bend down holding my stomach. Uneasiness settles at the pit of my stomach as my arms hold my stomach.

"Can you take it easy with the breaks?" Lukah demands, glaring at Raiden.

"Sure, brother," Raiden replies, his words clipped. I sit up.

"Here. Use this." Skyler hands me a rubber band for my hair—which became a mess after tonight's adventure.

I grab it since I feel way too hot and my skin is coated with a thin layer of cold sweat that makes me both hot and cold at once. "Thank you." I smile plainly at her.

I sigh in relief as I pull my hair up in a high ponytail. Then, I let my back fall against the back of my seat. My shoulders slouch forward as I gag. Dean stares at me, frightened and sliding further away from me (even though there is no more room in the damn car).

"I'm not gonna let you puke on my Nikes!" He makes a gesture with his hands and arches his eyebrows as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I hate you both," I mumble with my hands holding the sides of my head, my whole torso bent down.

I doze off for a few minutes, my neck resting against the headrest of my seat. When I regain consciousness, Dean's forehead is leaning against the window. Lukah, on the other side, has his right hand casually leaned over the door, and his left hand is draped around the back of my seat. Overly conscious about this, I shuffle in my place as I feel the skin of his arm brushing against the skin of the nape of my neck.

My brown eyes turn to see him, checking that he is aware of what he is doing.

His green eyes look a bit darker than usual. He slides closer to me with his eyes flickering between Raiden and me, but they finally fix on mine. Leaning toward my ear, he whispers, "I'm sorry."

Goosebumps blanket my skin and I swallow the lump in my throat.

Our cheeks brush as he backs off a bit and I bite my lip while contemplating his. From the corner of my eye, I catch Raiden's stare in the rearview mirror. Automatically, I train my eyes ahead of me and I slide a bit closer to Dean.

Enough Sunset.

We are changing the narrative. I'm no longer screwing my brother's friends.

🔸🔸🔸

The sun rises again, almost at the same time as yesterday. It seems just another day, but everything feels different now, even when the sun doesn't seem to care about my inner transformation.

I sit up on my bed, my head throbbing in pain. My whole body feels sore from all the throwing up. My eyes scan my body and I notice that I have slept on my vomit-reeking clothes.

Ugh. Gross.

Someone knocks at the door.

"It's Raiden, can I come in?"

"Ye...yes." My voice sounds so raspy.

"I brought you something for your headache..." He shows me a pill he is holding in his right hand and a glass of water in the other one. He approaches me and sits on my bed as I gulp the pill he gave me.

"I just want you to know that we talked to Skyler's dad. He is a doctor. We were worried about the mix you made." He gulps visibly.

"Oh." I feel so ashamed of myself right now.

"He said it was a good thing you threw up, otherwise you would be in hospital right now." His hand lands on my knee.

"Yeah, you should thank Lukah for that," I mumble.

"I know, I did thank him." He nods.

"I'm not going to ruin your friendship with him," I blurt out. "I'm changing the story as from today, I'm going to go to university, I'm gonna own my life."My eyes warm up as Raiden smiles proudly at me, even in the aftermath of everything that has happened.

His hand clutches around my knee in a reassuring gesture. "I'm always here for you, even if you don't change, I love my sister, I love having you in my life-"

My arms fly around him, his arms also snake around me.

Clearing my throat, I state, "Okay, bro. That's enough love for us today."

He chuckles lowly. "I'll make it up to you. We can fight over who sets the table, or who takes Dawn to hockey," he jokes, standing up.

"Will you be okay?" His hands shove deep into his jeans.

I look up at him and nod. For the first time in a long time, I think I have just given an honest answer.

🔸🔸🔸

"Dawn? Are you awake?" I ask as I knock at her door.

"Come in!" she yells.

I open the door and "Dynamite" by BTS blares into the walls of the room.

Dawn is sitting at her desk. She is wearing a denim jumpsuit, below, she has a black and white striped shirt. When did she grow up so much?

"Hey. Umm- I kind of need a favor," I yell over the song.

"Wait!" she yells back. Standing up, she turns the volume down. Then, she sits down on her bed, her legs crossed.

"You were saying?" She asks, patting the bed for me to sit.

Smiling, I walk to her, seating at the spot she just patted.

"If I remember correctly, you are kind of famous on Wattpad, right?" I squint an eye at her, letting my arm drape around her shoulder.

"I have only 1K followers, that's nothing compared to-"

"That's more than enough, I need to do a shoutout, and since I only read on Wattpad I only have 3 followers." I pout.

"Yeah, one of them is me," she informs me and I crack a burst of laughter.

"Exactly. You have an audience and I don't. So, I need to publish a sort of story on your profile. Would that be okay? I need people to hear about it, but it's kind of different than the usual stuff."

"Yeah, that'd be cool. What is it? Fanfiction? Oh my God! Is it  BTS fanfiction? Oh no, wait, Harry Potter fanfic? Harry Styles fanfic? Dark Harry or Soft? is it A.U? Oh no, I know!" She pauses, beaming at me. "You are you writing one shots? Or Imagines?" She rants on and I stare at her. I'm baffled at the amount of knowledge this fourteen-year-old has about this universe.

"Well." Blinking my eyes, I go on, "I have no idea about half of the things you've just mentioned but it's kind of a blend of everything," I explain to her although I am not still confident that this will work. "Can you help me to make it work?"

"What are sisters for?" She beams at me.

"Awww." I bring her closer for a hug.

"Ugh, but you need to shower first!" She pushes me away from her and I laugh.

Brace yourself. This is me changing the story.