Playing Poker [BEING REWRITTEN]

3| Asthma

Rayland

"Get up, get up, get up." I am awoken to Hayden screaming in my ear.

I fall to the ground with a big thud.

"Ow." I groan as I slowly sit up.

"I'm sorry, Micheal said to wake you up because you have to go shopping with Jaxon."

"Why Jaxon?"

"Something about volunteering." He muttered as he walked out.

Volunteering?

I put on a large black hoodie, black ripped jeans and put my hair in a low ponytail. I went downstairs and saw Jaxon leaning against the front door frame.

"Took you long enough." He said as he walked into the garage.

Nice to see you too, Sunshine.

I resisted the urge to gape at the collection of cars. There were at least ten. We got into a matte black car and started driving. I was going to ask why he volunteered but we came to a sudden stop at a giant mall.

"What store do you want to go to?" He asked.

I haven't shopped for clothes in years. I've barely grown so there was no need. My 5'5 frame has been that height for at least two years. I stopped growing because of my poor diet. The last time I went to a doctor, she said I should be at least 5'8 by now. That obviously didn't happen.

"Doesn't matter." I shrugged.

And we spent the next three hours going store to store, Jaxon picking up everything I even looked at and me insisting that it's too expensive. Also, about six girls came up to Jaxon saying he was cute with his "adorable little sister". We look nothing alike. 3 others thought I was his girlfriend. I shuddered.

"I didn't know having a 14 year old by your side made you a chick magnet."

"I did, that's why I wanted to take in the first place." He exclaimed.

"Ouch." I dramatically put my hand on my chest and pretended to faint. Jaxon rolled his eyes and a smile crept onto his face.

We walked up to the car and he pulled something out of his pocket. I ignored it and slipped into the passenger seat. As he's driving, I'm starting to smell smoke.

"Can you not smoke with me in the car?" I ask.

"Why, can't handle a little smoke?" He says with a smug grin.

No, I can't.

I tried to hold in my cough as long as possible but I couldn't control it anymore. I started coughing and wheezing.

"Shit." I heard him mutter.

As I was still gasping for air, I saw him calling somebody from a feature on his car.

"Micheal?"

"Jax, wha- wait, is that Rayland coughing?"

"Yeah, I was uh... smoking and-." He was cut off by Micheal's yelling.

"What the hell? I thought you stopped smoking 6 months ago."

"That's not the point. I think she's having an asthma attack."

"How are you so stupid? You're smoking in a car with someone who has asthma."

"Shut up, I didn't know."

"Rayland, do you have an inhaler?" Micheal says through the phone.

"Room." I say through a cough.

At this point, we are pulling into the garage but my breaths were still ragged. From that point on, everything was a blur. The last thing I remember is being carried in the house.

Third Person

Jaxon ran as fast as he could cradling Rayland in his arms as she was still gasping for air. The door swung open just as Jaxon was about to grasp his hand on the handle.

"What the hell did you do to her?" Liam yelled.

Jaxon ignored his question waiting for Micheal to find her inhaler.

Micheal was searching every place in her room but still came up empty. He checked a drawer and found the inhaler he was looking for but that didn't stop him from noticing the pill bottle in the same drawer. If Rayland had been taking drugs, he didn't want Rayland anywhere near his brothers, even if that meant creating a plan to keep her away.

Micheal knew his brothers already weren't too fond of the girl already, so it wouldn't be too hard to make sure she wasn't a threat.

"Did you find it Mike?" Jaxon yelled wondering what was taking so long.

He stuffed the pills in his pocket not bothering to read the label and rushed downstairs.

Only the two eldest brothers were home. The rest of the brothers were at school and Paul and Linda were out on their honeymoon, they would be gone for two weeks. Jaxon was allowed to skip because he took her shopping.

He handed Rayland the inhaler who was now sitting on the couch still struggling to breathe. She quickly took a breath through the inhaler slowly restoring her breathing pattern.

"Thanks." She murmured, feeling embarrassed about what happened. She scurried off upstairs to the comfort of her bed. And she started to think.

Rayland hated being stuck in her own thoughts, it was dangerous. It happened often from her lack of social interaction. She has no friends, no family, absolutely no one to talk to. No one was there to help when she was lying in her own pool of blood, no one was there for her to rant to about how shitty her life was, no one to give her hugs and tell her everything would be okay. No one.

She knew she was alone when that last person that loved her walked out on her. She knew it wasn't his fault but that couldn't help her from being angry. Her anger wasn't directed towards him, she was angry at the world. She was angry at her mom, she was angry at her dad, she was angry at her aunt, she was angry at Darren, and she was angry at herself. She was angry that she let herself become so weak, so vulnerable. She became so dependent on that comfort that she got, that she completely broke down when it was gone. She was never that same after that. Her smile was slowly becoming more and more faded to the point where it wasn't there anymore.

Most importantly, she was angry at the dealer, for giving her a bad hand.

Playing Poker

"I found pills in her room while I was looking for the inhaler." Micheal blurted out.

Both brothers look at Micheal in shock. Liam always thought she was a troublemaker, her attendance was terrible starting from age nine to the present, and her behavior at dinner when they first met didn't help either. This pushed his wariness over the girl to the edge. It was only a matter of time before her bad habits made an influence on his younger brothers.

"What do you want us to do about it?" Jaxon inquired. Jaxon tried not to care about the well-being of the girl but somewhere deep down, he knew he did. He didn't want her to turn out like him two years ago. He shuddered at the thought.

"We make our brothers hate her."

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1122 Words

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