Dissolving

Chapter 40 - Quicksand

The closer we get to home, the more restless I become.

It is two kinds of restlessness, really. For one, I am anxious about my brothers' reactions to my impromptu sleep-over at Jayden's that followed my – in hindsight – kind of questionable decision to once again leave without telling anyone where I was going. And on the other hand, I am excited to see Alex and Sean again.

I just hope Alex won't be too disappointed in me for running away last night.

I am still a bit upset that he didn't even bother to send me a message to ask where I was or whether I was okay. That is pretty silly of me, maybe, because there is no rule that says they always have to worry or care whenever they don't know where I am, let alone be wondering about my well-being all the time. I have often enough made it clear that I am tired of them being so overbearing.

So what am I even upset about?

They only did what I have been asking for. And now that they finally granted me my wish, it rubs me the wrong way. Clearly, this is my personal issue and not something to do with them.

"... here, honey," I catch the tail-end of Luke's announcement.

Blinking a couple of times to clear my vision, I see that we are parked in the driveway of our house. Instantly, I look around to spot any other cars, namely Josh's. I let out a subconscious sigh of relief when I don't see it anywhere, and neither Sam's.

At least they are not all inside, waiting for me and gearing up to give me a lecture about going to Jay's without permission. And turning my phone off, too, which means breaking one of the main rules in our family.

A sharp pain shoots through the side of my head. I instinctively flinch away to get out of reach of Luke's knuckles that he has knocked non-too-gently against my temple left.

"Ouch!" I complain, blindly waving my arm in his direction to get him to back off.

"Sorry, but you were totally spacing out, Lily. I just wanted to check if you're still in there," Luke explains, tapping my temple again.

I can hear amusement in his voice and without even looking at him, I know that he is grinning stupidly at his own lame joke. I exaggeratedly rub the now slightly sore spot on my temple and narrow my eyes at him to show my brother just how unimpressed I am by his methods to get my attention.

"Cute," he chuckles and then adds as if talking to himself: "The kid thinks she's actually intimidating me with her puppy-glare. Hilarious."

"Shut up, you're so not funny," I growl, trying and failing to punch him in the upper arm to get my message across.

Despite the confines of the car, Luke obviously anticipated that this was coming and managed to get away just in time. This only adds to my irritation.

Luke isn't normally a person to get under my skin so easily, but I feel already annoyed with him after only about 15 minutes in his presence. That is a very bad sign for what's to come. I didn't get much sleep last night, what with my mind reeling from all that happened. Following four rather restless nights on our desert trip, this is obviously a recipe for disaster. My mood is quickly deteriorating.

If I am already that thin-skinned around one of my most likable bothers, there is no telling what the rest of this day will bring if anyone just looks at me the wrong way. Which is surely going to happen, seeing as I live under the same roof as Aidan and am bound to encounter him at some point.

I best try to slip inside the house behind Luke and disappear in my room to avoid unnecessary confrontations. That plan might also save me from receiving a talking to, which would totally work in my favor. If I get upset – and that is a very likely scenario – the chances of me blurting out stuff that I don't want to reveal are dangerously high. Like, I don't need them to know that I eavesdropped last night.