It was so odd having a brother in the house again.

My mom shrieked and squealed, her arms wrapping around Garrett so tightly I thought he was going to burst.  I opened my mouth, trying to say something, but my mom blocked me out, her sole attention on Garrett.  I grumbled under my breath.  I mean, I knew that Garrett coming home was amazing—I was extremely excited that he was here—but the fact that I couldn’t get a single word in was infuriating.

“Mom,” I muttered again.

“Oh, Garrett, hon, what would you like for dinner tonight?” my mom gushed, completely ignoring my presence as she patted down his shirt.  What was she doing, anyway?  Searching for wrinkles?  I cocked an eyebrow.  She wasn’t going to get anywhere doing that.  His shirt was obviously ironed.

Garrett smiled brightly, bringing a hand through his dark locks of hair.  He had my dad’s hair—short, but not too short, and a shade lighter than my hair.  Garrett and I didn’t look that much alike.  The only things that we had in common were the shape of our nose and the arch in our eyebrows.  While my eyes were large and brown, his were small and grey.  While he had sharp facial features, mine were on the softer side.  I always wondered how people thought we looked alike—I couldn’t tell.

“Oh, mac and cheese sounds good!” Garrett said with a grin.

That had been the kid’s favorite food since birth.  Sad, really.

“Oh, my baby hasn’t changed a bit!”  She kissed him on the cheek and backed away.  “Why don’t we put your stuff in your room?”

I shook my head at my mom’s enthusiasm.  She treated Garrett like he was a guest here.  I mean, yeah we hadn’t seen him in a while, but that didn’t mean that we had to walk him to his bedroom, offer him special food, or give him special treatment.  He’d lived in the house for nineteen years. 

I followed my mom and brother up the stairs, keeping my distance as my mom chirped about how much we’d missed him and how much we loved that he was back.  She was going to make him a special dinner that everyone would love.  Ha!  Yeah, right!  Garrett would probably secretly dump everything in the trash.  And I would gladly follow his league.

“Wow, you cleaned it while I was gone!” Garrett exclaimed as he trotted into his room, looking around.

I scanned his room, letting a small smile curl up on my lips.  He had posters hanging everywhere, covering his walls entirely.  He had a blanket draped over his window to block out the sunlight.  Before he’d left there were clothes everywhere.  On the floor, on the furniture.  Everywhere.  My mom took the liberty to come in here and clean everything from head to toe.  It took her all day. 

“So, how’s my lovely sister?” Garrett asked suddenly, ripping me out of my reverie.

I blinked.  “What?”

“I see your hearing is still intact.” Garrett snorted, shaking his head.  “How are you?”

I scoffed, sticking my tongue out him before saying, “Fine.”

My mom smiled before letting out an, “Oh!” sound.  Garrett and I turned to her expectantly.  “Tell him about your new friend!” she squealed, pointing and jumping.

I scowled at her.  How dare she be so giddy?  And make me talk about Dannon?  She was just asking to be hit, wasn’t she?

“Oooh, a new friend?”  Garrett clapped his hands together.  “Who is this lovely girl?  Is she hot?”

“I’m sorry,” I drawled, making my way into the room.  “I doubt he would be into you.”

Garrett’s clapping came to an instant halt.  My mom laughed at him.  I coked an eyebrow, not able to help letting out a small snort.  His face read, A guy?  Brianne?  Was I not allowed to have guys that were just friends?  Obviously not.  No one in the world seemed to think so.

“A boy?”

It was kind of insulting how shocked he was.

I rolled my eyes, leaning back on the wall.  “Yes, a boy.”

“A real boy?”

I laughed.  What else would he be?  Pinochio?  “Yes,” I said slowly.  “He’s no longer wooden.  He was granted humanity from the magical fairy.”

“She’s on her period, isn’t she?” Garrett asked immediately, directing his question at my mom.

“Excuse me!” I shrieked as my mom nodded in response.  “That is private information, not to be disclosed with men.”

I know what you’re all thinking.  But Brianne, Dannon knows!  Yeah, well, obviously he doesn’t count.

Garrett waved his hand dismissively flopping onto his bed and grinning at me.  I stared at him, my lips pressed into a straight line.  “So, who is this guy?  I want to meet him!” Garrett laughed at my expression.  “Come on, Brianne.  It’s questioning time.”

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest.  I scowled out the window, annoyed to be in this situation.  But, then again, I was annoyed with every little thing that everyone did at the moment.  So, maybe if I weren’t on my period this wouldn’t be as infuriating as it was.  “For one, that doesn’t make sense,” I snapped, my gaze turning back to my brother.  “For two, you don’t need to question because he’s not my boyfriend.”

“You didn’t tell me who he is!” Garrett exclaimed.  “Where’s my information, woman?”

For a college student, he was really immature.

“His name is Dannon,” I replied after a moment of trying to contain my irritation.

Garrett smiled brightly, all of his teeth showing.  He patted the spot beside him.  “Come,” he said.  “Sit.”

With a small sigh I dragged myself over to his bed and plopped beside him.  Garrett grinned at my obedience, patting me on the head.  I slapped it away instantly, letting a glare flash across my facial features.  Just because I listened to him, it didn’t mean that I was going to allow him to touch my head.  I hated it when people did that.

“I’m going to let you two have some time alone while I go get dinner ready.”  My mom smiled adoringly at Garrett and I before trotting out of the room, humming a Casting Crowns song under her breath as she did. 

Dinner at two-thirty in the afternoon.  Yummy.

“So,” Garrett drawled, wriggling his eyebrows, “this Dannon guy. . . .”

I grumbled under my breath, my eyes up at the ceiling.  If I had known all the questioning and cooing I’d be dealing with, I would never have thrown that apple across the cafeteria.  That was Kyla’s plan all along.  To get me to chuck a piece of fruit just so I’d be irritated the rest of my life.  That was incredibly nice of her.

Wow.  This period was hitting me hard.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said with a sigh. 

Garrett leaned forward, staring me down.  “Classify him.”

“Jock,” I replied instantly.

Garrett’s eyebrows flew up.  “You go for that?”

I punched him in the shoulder.  “Hey!” I shrieked as he recoiled away, laughing heartily.  I was a little deflated that he didn’t cry out in pain—that’s what I’d been going for after all—but whatever.  I couldn’t inflict pain every time. 

After his laughter died down, Garrett held up his hands innocently.  “Hey, sorry,” he mused, not sounding sorry at all.  “You just don’t go for romance at all and then you go for a jock.  It’s odd.”

I stared at him for a long time before answering.  “I’m not ‘going’ for anyone,” I defended myself.  Did everyone always assume that when you were friends with a guy that you had a thing for them?

“Whatever,” Garrett said with a short laugh.  “Next question.”  He paused, pondering which question to ask.  “Personality?”

I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.  “Annoying.”

Garrett seemed confused.  I waited for him to understand, imagining the wheels grinding and turning within his brain.  I watched as the realization slowly crept up his face.  His eyes grew steadily wider and wider, and then . . .

All the realization was gone.

“What?” he asked dumbly, his expression now blank.

“He’s annoying,” I repeated.  One glance at the still remaining blank expression on his face, I decided to elaborate.  “Doesn’t shut up, always smiling this ridiculous smile, and has a freaking answer for everything.”  I looked at him.  “Annoying.”

Garrett’s expression turned to one of confusion to one that I couldn’t decipher.  I couldn’t tell whether it was shame that he had me as a sister or wonder at why God made me the way He did.  Maybe it was both.  I didn’t really know.  “How long have you been friends?” he decided to move on before I could truly figure out what his expression meant.

I shrugged.  “Not long.”

“How did you become friends?” Garrett pressed.

I paused.  “Um. . . .”

Garrett shot me a suspicious stare.  “Brianne?”

I sighed.  My stupid “um” destroyed whatever excuse I’d been formulating in my mind.  He would know I was lying.  “Kyla forced me to throw an apple across the cafeteria across the cafeteria and it hit him in the head,” I explained softly, rubbing my arm awkwardly.

Garrett burst out laughing.  “Seriously?” he forced out between guffaws.  “Oh my gosh, that’s hilarious!”

“You can’t tell Mom!” I begged, my eyes pleading with him.  “I’ll be grounded for sure!  And she’ll make me apologize to him!  I refuse.”

Apologizing to Dannon was like . . . no.  Just no. 

Garrett stopped laughing.  “You hit a jock in the head with an apple.”

I rolled my eyes as he began laughing again, falling back on the bed.  Why he found this much hilarity in my situation, I didn’t really know.  I couldn’t really ask him either because he was practically rolling around like a puppy.  “As you can tell by his personality, he’s not a normal jock now is he?” I challenged.

“Huh.”  Garrett pursed his lips thoughtfully.  “How popular is he?”

“Very.”

I looked around the room.  It had been so long since I’d been in here.  Garrett and I used to hide out in here all the time when my mom was on a rampage.  She’d bark orders at us to help clean around and we’d hide under the covers of Garrett’s bed, talking in hushed voices.  He’d comfort me when I cried, scared that my mom was going to do something.  It was an irrational fear, of course.  My mom couldn’t even hurt a fly.  Seriously.  I’m not using a cliché here.  My mom screamed at me for slapping a fly.

“Interesting,” Garrett drawled.  “How often have you guys hung out?”

I frowned.  “Er,” I mumbled, biting my lip.  How was this supposed to help my case?  Saying that we’d hung out pretty much twenty-four-seven was going to make us look inseparable.  “Well, we became friends last week . . .” I continued, buying time.  Sadly, it had run out.  “All the time.”

Garrett’s expression lit up.  I inwardly groaned, knowing what was coming.  I should have just lied.  Maybe said, “Not a lot.”  But, nah.  He’d have seen right through me.  Brothers who knew you from the inside out were incredibly annoying.

“Even on the weekends?” Garrett wriggled his eyebrows.

I mentally face-palmed.  Damn my mother.  That was going to look seriously suspicious.  If she’d just left it alone at Dannon coming over for dinner, I wouldn’t be in this mess.  “Yeah . . .”

“Huh.”

Oh great.  I got a “huh.”  That was not a good sign.  I sighed.  “Look, it’s not how it sounds,” I said, fiddling with my hands.  “Mom and Dad invited him to Aunt Jill’s barbeque and asked him to sleep over the night before.  Then we got stuck at Aunt Jill’s for a couple of days—”

“You guys had sleep overs?” Garrett exclaimed.  “Shame, shame!”

I rolled my eyes.  “Take that up with Mom,” I said, waving my hand at the doorway.  “And stop her from making supper at two in the afternoon, would you?”

Garrett laughed, standing up and patting his jean pockets.  He trotted toward the door, spinning around and flashing me a grin.  “That’d probably be best, yeah?”

I scoffed, standing up and following him out of the room.  “Yeah.”

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

“Brianne,” my mom called.  “Phone!”

I sighed, heaving myself up from my bed.  I tossed my homework to the side, grumbling under my breath.  Whoever was on the phone had better be dead or dying.  That homework was due tomorrow and I had like an hour before I had to go to bed.

“Who is it?” I demanded as I made my way down the stairs, venturing into the kitchen.  Seated at the table was my family participating in an intense Scrabble match.  Way to be, family.  They didn’t even ask me to play.  It wasn’t like I would play anyway, but if they at least thought of including me, that would have been nice.

My mom simply handed me the cordless phone without answering.  I rolled my eyes, snatching the phone out of her hand and bringing it to my ear.  She couldn’t have just told me who was calling?  “Hello?” I murmured, scowling at my mom’s head.

“Hey!”

My scowl deepened.  “You have my cell phone number and you call my house why?” I demanded, my head shaking.

“It’s Dannon isn’t it?” Garrett asked, sliding his selected letters onto the board, forming a word that I didn’t know the definition of.

“Yep,” my mom said absently, her eyes trained on the game board.

Oh, so she could tell Garrett and not me.  Whatever. 

“I’m sorry.”  Dannon chuckled.  “Would you like me to call back on your cell phone?”

“You’re an idiot,” I said simply.

“We’ve moved from asshole to idiot.  Nice.”

I paused for a moment.  Hearing a swear come from his mouth just sounded . . . odd.  I wasn’t exactly sure why, but it did.  “Would you rather be asshole?” I mused, leaning back against the counter.  I winced as my back dug into the wood.  “Because that could be arranged.”

“Their flirting is weak,” Garrett commented as my mom placed her word on the board.  My mom laughed heartily.

“Shut up, Garrett!” I snapped.

My eyes rolled as Garrett childishly stuck out his tongue.  You’d think that going to college would make you more mature, but no it most definitely did not. If anything he just got more obnoxious.  He's not actually being obnoxious, I reminded myself.  You’re just cramping and cranky.

Good point, inner self.  Very good point.

“Who’s Garrett?” Dannon inquired.

It never crossed my mind that Dannon didn’t know Garrett.  I blinked, mainly from shock at the question, before answering.  “He’s my brother.”

Suddenly Garrett was up, his chair clattering to the ground as he jumped up excitedly.  His eyes were wild as he waved his arms through the air.  He reminded me of a wild animal lost in the wilderness.  Completely hopeless.  “Is he asking about me?” Garrett demanded.  “I wanna talk to him!”

I groaned, smacking my hand to my face.  What kind of brother wanted to talk to a girl’s friend?  I mean, yeah when we were younger he used to steal the phone away from me to talk to Kyla.  But that was just to piss me off.  I thought we’d gotten past this.  Apparently not.

“No,” I said simply, shaking my head.

“No what?” Dannon asked, confused.  “Oh, hey I have a question for you.”

“Aw why not?” Garrett whined, pouting and putting his hands defiantly on his hips.

“What?” I turned my question to Dannon, ignoring my brother completely.  It was for the best.  Paying attention to Garrett would only get me annoyed.  And being annoyed was not something I felt like being.

“What did I miss in history?”

I took a few moments to answer.  Garrett was a little distracting with his childish glare as he pointed frantically to the phone, mouthing, “I want to talk to him!” over and over again.  It was a little pathetic if you asked me. 

Finally it clicked what Dannon was asking and I let out a short snicker.  “You missed some gossip about yourself,” I mused, my gaze flicking to my finger nails of my raised hand.

“Gossip?  About me?”

I snorted.  How could he be so blind?  Usually popular people embraced their popularity status.  They embraced the fact that they were practically royalty when it came to the hallways of the school building.  I was starting to think that maybe that was just in the movies.  “Yes, about you.”

“I want to talk to him!” Garrett shouted, storming over to me and banging his fist on the counter.  I cocked an eyebrow at him, completely unfazed.  Now if had been me pulling this stunt, I would have been grounded immediately.  But this was Garrett.  He’d just arrived home.  So, apparently he got cut some slack.

“What else did I miss?”

It didn’t surprise me that Dannon didn’t care about what the students were talking about.  Who was I kidding, anyway?  “I’m not exactly sure.”  I squinted, trying to wrack through my brain to find an answer to his question.  Nothing came up.  “I was plotting murder the entire class.”

“Well,” Dannon said with a chuckle, “that is certainly unhealthy.”

I laughed.  “Ain’t it?”

Suddenly the phone was ripped away from my grasp.  I let out a disgruntled noise, spinning to find Garrett smiling triumphantly as he brought the phone to his ear.  “Hey!” I hissed, trying to get the phone back from him.  “Come on, Garrett.”

Garrett whacked my hands away before pushing off the counter and trotting to the middle of the room.  “Hello, Dannon,” he said in a mock-serious tone.  There was a pause.  “I’m Garrett.”

I leaned against the counter, puffing air into my face.  My bangs flew everywhere, covering my eyes.  With one irritated motion I flicked it out of the way, my gaze resting upon Garrett once again.  I could just imagine Dannon’s reaction.  He was probably going, “Oh, hello Garrett!”

“Hi!” Garrett exclaimed, his expression lightening up.

Told you.

“So, I hear you and my sister have become friends.”  Garrett nodded as though to himself.  I cocked an eyebrow at him, wondering what Dannon’s replies were.  “I see, I see.”  He looked at me and laughed.  “My sister looks like she’s going to kill me.”  A pause.  “What?  OMG she didn’t tell you about me?  How rude!”

I snorted, sauntering over to the refrigerator and prying the door open.  I grabbed a bottle of water before twisting around and kicking the door shut.  Yes, I was actually drinking water.  Amazing isn’t it?

As Garrett and Dannon began to chat about who-knows-what, I took over Garrett’s side of the game, making the least point-worthy words in history.  I would like to say this was on purpose, but sadly, it was not.  I just sucked.  But my mom and dad didn’t seem to know that I was actually trying because they kept telling me to be nice, to not screw him over the way I was.  Oh well.  He took the phone from me.

A few turns later Garrett was back, dangling the phone in front of my face.  “Here, you can have it back.”  He chuckled as I grabbed the phone and stood up.  “I like him.”

“Good, call me when you get married,” I retorted, moving aside as he flopped into his seat.  “Oh, and I played for you.”

“Dammit!” Garrett hissed as his eyes landed on the board.  “Cat?  Really?”

“They’re wondrous animals, really.”

“Screw you.”

I laughed, taking a few precautionary steps away from my brother as I brought the phone back to my ear.  “Is there anything else you need?” I inquired, moving back to my lovely spot at the counter.

Instead of answering with a, “Are you sure you don’t remember what you did in history?” or a “Is there anything else you know of that I missed?” Dannon asked, “How long is Garrett staying?”

My eyebrows instantly rose.  “You couldn’t have asked him that while you guys were talking?”

“Slipped my mind.”

I sighed deeply, acting as though it pained me deeply to be passing Dannon’s message to Garrett when it reality it didn’t.  “Garrett, how long are you here for?” I asked, grinning as he scrambled to catch up to my parents’ scores. I, being the strategic teenager that I was, had left him over one-hundred points behind. 

Garrett barely spared me a glance as he placed his extremely long word that I couldn’t even pronounce onto the board.  “’Bout two weeks, why?”

I shrugged.  “Dannon wanted to know.”

This seemed to catch his attention.  His head snapped up and a smile spread across his face.  “Ooh can he come over?”

“No, he can’t,” I replied, even though he probably could come over.  Oh well. 

“What can’t I do?” Dannon asked, sounding amused.

I scratched an itch on my cheek before replying.  “Garrett wants you to come over.”

Dannon chuckled.  “Oh.”

I cocked an eyebrow at his tone.  “Do you want to come over?”

There was a pause as Dannon seemed to think my question through.  I looked up at the ceiling, frowning at a strange speck.  I didn’t know how it got there or when, but it was seriously bugging me.  With a purse of the lips I looked away, shaking my head.  No need to obsess over a speck now, Brianne.  There are other important things to do.  Like sit around and do nothing.  Yeah, totally.

“Well,” Dannon finally replied, “I’m home alone.  And I don’t like being home alone.”

“Oh,” my mom decided to pipe in, “ask him if he wants to have dinner!”

“Okay, come over then,” I said to Dannon, wiping my face with the back of my hand.  “Mom wants to know if you want dinner.”

I didn’t include the fact that he didn’t want dinner because my mom happened to be cooking tonight and he’d probably end up barfing all over the place.  That happened to newcomers.  Hell, sometimes I had to fight down vomit. 

“Okay!” Dannon said cheerfully.  “I’ll be there.”

“’Kay.”

With that I proceeded to hang up on him.

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

I lounged on the couch, my head propped up with my left hand, waiting patiently as my mom paced back and forth in the living room.  Garrett sat beside me, not exactly as patient as I was.  He was hopping up and down.  A lot.  With each minute the hops got more annoying.  My mom had called a family meeting a good ten minutes ago, saying that it was important.  What the meeting was about, I didn’t know.  And why it obviously wasn’t important enough to keep Garrett from hopping for the past ten minutes, I also didn’t know.

I grumbled under my breath, finally having enough of Garrett’s irritating hopping and slapping him irritably on the arm.  Garrett recoiled, sending me a pout as he rubbed his arm.  I rolled my eyes, pushing into the cushions.  I wished my mom would come out with it already.

“Mom, let’s go,” Garrett complained, his hands flying up in exasperation.  “Just say what you need to!  Dannon’s going to be here in like fifteen minutes.”

I coughed down a snort.  He hadn’t even met the guy and he was treating him like he was married to him.  Only my brother, seriously.

“Well, this isn’t exactly easy to say,” my mom defended herself, cutting me off from my inner thoughts.

I slouched, my gaze turning to the window.  It was quite obvious that my mom wasn’t going to come out and say what she was hiding anytime soon.  Even my dad, who was seated in the recliner a few feet away, seemed to sense this.  He kinda looked like he was begging her with his eyes to just say it.  So, while I waited, I decided that I was going to do something productive: count the number of branches on the tree in the yard.

Call me crazy, but it kept you busy.

One, I began, trying not to let my eyes cross as I attempted to concentrate on the tree outside.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Suddenly my mom wasn’t pacing.  She came to a stop and she turned to face us.  “I’m pregnant!” she screamed, her eyes wide as though she couldn’t believe that she was finally telling us what she had to say.

My tree branch counting forgotten, my head spun around so fast that I thought it was going to crack.  “What?"