Her big brothers

Chapter 29: afterparty

I gulped, the sight of our limo has never made me this nervous before.
I ever so slowly lifted my wrist to my face, to check the time. It was almost 2 am. Fuck.

I hasn't even realised we'd been at the party that long, Holly told her mom we'd be home by 1 am! If Holly's mom had called Alex or Noah, I'd be so incredibly screwed. Then I had a not-so-great idea.
Holly had kept on walking, while I was stuck where I was standing.

"Emma? Come on, we have to go!" She says, turning back and grabbing my hand.
"Holly, wait. It's our limo. It's 2 am, your mom probably called Alex because we're late!" I hurriedly, explain to her, so she can understand the gravity of the situation.

"So what can we do? We have to go inside"

"Holly, let's go to Jamie's house!" I shriek, and I grab her hand and we run back to his house.
As we were running, Holly was trying to reason with me.

"Em, you do realise we will still be caught? Stalling won't do anything!"

I know she's right, but all I wanted to do at that moment was avoid punishment, so I just shake my head and continue running. By the time we get back to Jamie's house, there were only a few people left. We hadn't been gone for long, but even when we were there, people had started to leave, so we weren't surprised.

Jamie opened the door when we knocked, and he seemed rather surprised to see us.
"Emma? Holly? What are you guys doing back here, I thought you had to leave?" He asked, puzzled.

We were trying to catch our breaths from running so long, so we could respond. Luckily, Jamie understood and invited us In and gave us some water and we sat down in the kitchen, He went to ask the last few people in his house to leave. Just then, Holly received another call. She slowly picked it up and showed me. It was her mom.

"What do I do?" She asked me, panicking.

"I-I don't know, don't answer!" I sputtered.

She quickly declined the call and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Did your brothers text you anything?" She asked me.

Then I realised, I hadn't checked my phone since we arrived here, I had turned it off!
"I haven't checked," I told her.

Holly then got another call from her mom a minute later, which I asked her to decline.
Her phone kept on buzzing, probably her mom texting her, so she turned it off like I had earlier. I felt bad for involving her in this, I'll take the blame.

I decided to muster up my courage and check my phone. What I saw made me glad we ran back. I had like 15 missed calls and I saw a bunch of worried, and angry texts from all of my brothers, which I didn't dare to read. I got another call from Alex, and I immediately declined it. I knew that I was being stupid, and just making things worse for myself, but I wasn't gimme get up and go to Holly's house now, was I?

After Jamie ushered the last person out, he came and sat with us.

"So what the hell happened?" He asked us.
I started explaining everything to him when we heard a knock on the door.
"It's probably one of my friends, let me get it," he says and gets up from his seat.

It's been a good 35 minutes since Holly's mom had called us, and I'm starting to realise, running away from Alex isn't going to achieve anything. I have to face them at some point, I can't stay here forever.

"I'm sorry for involving you in this" I mumble to Holly.

"It's okay, what are best friends for?" She says, and I smile.

"Emma, could you come here?" I heard Jamie shout.

I put my glass of water down and headed to the entrance of the house, where Jamie was.
I froze dead in my tracks when I saw who it was. It was Alex and Noah.

They did not look happy. "Not happy" is a complete understatement. They looked furious. I had never seen them this angry before. I swear Noah's eyes darkened, he looked like he could have smoke coming out of his ears. I could tell by Alex's intimidating stance, that his blood was boiling, and the vein in Noah's forehead looked like it could burst. I could tell they were both trying to stay calm.

"Limo. Now." Alex ordered in a dark voice, gritting his teeth.
I didn't wait to be asked twice, and I quickly shot out of the house and got inside the limo. About half a minute later, I heard Jamie's front door open and close, and my brothers came out. I didn't dare to look at them though.

My brothers entered the limo, and Noah slammed it shut, causing me to flinch. I was sitting behind the front passenger seat, and Alex was sitting in the driver's seat. He ever so slowly turned to face me.

"What in the world were you thinking young lady?" He asked me coldly, without raising his voice.

I mumbled something incoherently, still not looking at him.

"I asked you a question!" He yelled at me angrily, causing me to flinch again. Alex rarely yells, and even when he did, it wasn't at me. He took a deep breath and turned around.

"We'll talk about this at home," he says coldly and starts driving.
The car ride was painfully silent. Nobody said a word, and it was killing me.
I was wishing they'd say something, I would rather have them tell me off than this awful silence.

We finally reached home. Alex stopped the limo and finally broke the silence.

"Go to your room, now" he ordered, his hand still on the wheel.
I quickly unbuckled myself and went inside the house. Thankfully, no one was in the living room. I went up to my room and plopped myself on my bed, dreading what was about to come. A minute later Noah came in.

"Go to bed. School is cancelled tomorrow, so we will deal with your punishment tomorrow." He said angrily.

"Okay," I mumble.

He glances to my table where I tossed my phone and he took it. He also grabbed my laptop and tucked it under his Arm. He glared at me.

"Don't expect to be getting these back for a while" he said coldly and left my room.
I fall back on my bed. How the hell was I meant to fall asleep knowing what was in store for me tomorrow?